Eye care industry celebrates World Sight Day
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The global optometric community is joining together to recognize the World Sight Day Challenge during the months of September and October, highlighted by a day of awareness on Oct. 10.
The 2024 theme is “Giving Together, Seeing Forever,” celebrating “the collective power of the optometry community to give the gift of sight to millions of people in need” by eradicating uncorrected refractive error, according to the Optometry Giving Sight (OGS) website.
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“Our 2024 grant cycle recently concluded, resulting in OGS awarding over $963,000 to our implementing partners across the globe, including here in North America, to a variety of projects that all address the need to bring access to more vision care to those in need, train more eye care professionals and establish optometry in parts of the world where it doesn’t exist but is necessary,” OGS’s North American development director Nikki Earich told Healio.
“With those grants given, it is time for us to begin the yearly process of rebuilding our reserves, and with the World Sight Day Challenge being our only annual fundraiser, we look to all our partners in this industry for support,” she added.
The World Council of Optometry announced that it is joining the International Agency to Prevent Blindness in its #LoveYourEyes campaign to draw attention to “the 450 million children globally who have a sight condition that needs treatment,” the group said in a press release.
“What a great opportunity to highlight and increase awareness of the importance of screening, diagnosing and treating vision issues early in a child’s life to reduce the number of people with preventable visual impairments,” WCO President Sandra Block, OD, MEd, MPH, FAAO, FCOVD, said in the release. “Good vision is important for our children to learn and grow.”
Prevent Blindness kicked off its support of the World Sight Day Challenge by hosting a vision screening and eye health education event as well as a Congressional briefing on Sept. 12, the organization said in a press release.
The group is also partnering with the National Association of School Nurses to provide a World Sight Day toolkit, according to the release.
“World Sight Day provides a great opportunity to align with our partners all across the globe to collectively elevate discussions and bring awareness to the importance of healthy vision and the need for access to eye care for all, especially for our children,” Prevent Blindness President and CEO Jeff Todd said in the release. “We encourage parents, professionals, lawmakers and all concerned citizens to join us for World Sight Day and make a positive difference in the lives of others through healthy eyesight.”
Johnson & Johnson, a global partner of the World Sight Day campaign, announced previously that the company, together with the Lions Clubs International Foundation and the Sight for Kids program, provided comprehensive eye health services to more than 50 million students in North America, Africa, Asia and Europe. They shared in a press release plans to expand into Atlanta and Hong Kong this year.
Cure Blindness Project celebrated World Sight Day by expanding its sight-restoring services into Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Pakistan, Paraguay and Zambia.
“This ambitious move marks the global non-profit’s historic foray into South America, significantly broadening its reach beyond its established focus on sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia,” the group said in a press release.
Cure Blindness Project encourages ophthalmologists to join its mission to reach the goal of a world free from avoidable blindness.
References:
- Cure Blindness Project: Join the global partners program. https://give.cureblindness.org/campaign/global-partners-program/c570540. Accessed Oct. 10, 2024.
- Johnson & Johnson reached 50 million children through Sight for Kids program. https://www.jjvision.com/press-release/johnson-johnson-reaches-50-million-children-through-sight-kids-program. Published June 24, 2024. Accessed Oct. 10, 2024.
- Prevent Blindness launches 2024 World Sight Day activities, many dedicated to this year’s “Love Your Eyes” focus on children’s vision issues. https://preventblindness.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/2024-WSD-National.pdf. Published Sept. 3, 2024. Accessed Oct. 10, 2024.
- To donate to the World Sight Day Challenge, go to: https://givingsight.org/wsdc/.
- World Council of Optometry prioritizes child eye health for World Sight Day 2024. https://worldcouncilofoptometry.info/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/WCO-Press-Release-_-World-Sight-Day-2024.pdf. Published Oct. 10, 2024. Accessed Oct. 10, 2024.
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