This World Sight Day, let’s find the solutions to ensure that everyone, everywhere has access to sight.
World Sight Day (WSD) is an annual day of awareness held on the second Thursday of October, to focus global attention on blindness and vision impairment. World Sight Day 2020 is on 8 October 2020.
Let’s pledge to spread the message of #HopeInSight.
According to the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB):
- Approximately 285 million people worldwide live with low vision and blindness.
- Of these, 39 million people are blind and 246 million have moderate or severe visual impairment.
- 90% of blind people live in low-income countries.
- 80% of visual impairment is avoidable, being readily treatable and/or preventable.
- Restorations of sight, and blindness prevention strategies are among the most cost-effective interventions in healthcare.
- The number of people blind from infectious causes has greatly decreased in the past 20 years.
- An estimated 19 million children are visually impaired.
- About 65 % of all people who are visually impaired are aged 50 and older, while this age group comprises only 20% of the world’s population.
- Increasing elderly populations in many countries mean that more people will be at risk of age-related visual impairment.
Eye Care Practitioners: Promote the World Sight Day campaign in your practice
The IAPB (International Association for Protection of Blindness) has put together a complete support pack that you can use to promote World Sight Day in your practice. These include images and logos for your social media pages or website and posters that you can display in your practice.
Click here to find to download your promotional material: https://www.iapb.org/advocacy/world-sight-day/world-sight-day-2020/promotional-material2020/