World Sight Day helps to influence the government and departments of Health to participate in and contribute funds for national blindness prevention programmes.
Raising awareness on these issues helps educate the public on blindness prevention as vision is one of the most important of our 5 senses.
The 2020 global stats indicate that at least 2.2 billion people have a vision impairment that is possibly neither diagnosed nor treated. Of those, at least 1 billion people have vision problems that could have been prevented, has not been detected, or treated by an optometrist.
Additionally, 2.6 billion people have myopia (also known as short-sightedness). This includes 312 million children under the age of 19. Poor vision leads to poor academic performance, sports performance and overall efficiency. If children have these challenges, it inevitably leads to them not reaching their full potential as adults, which in turn affects the national economy.
These staggering stats are reasons why funding towards preventable blindness and vision impairment is of utmost importance. If public healthcare systems regularly funded eye tests for those who cannot afford it, vision problems can be detected early before they lead to permanent damage or blindness.
World Sight Day is an opportunity to encourage governments, organizations, institutions, and individuals to actively support national access to eyecare.
Millions of people have eye conditions that increase their risk of sight loss:
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196 million have age-related macular degeneration (One of the most common loss of vision in the elderly)
146 million have diabetic retinopathy (Changes on the retina due to a reduced oxygen supply to the retina that can lead to loss of vision)
76 million have glaucoma (High pressure within your eye that over a period of time if untreated, can lead to blindness)
5 million have trachomatous trichiasis (multiple childhood infections that causes, scarring, excessive tearing, and changes to the cornea that can lead to blindness)
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77 million have high myopia (severe short-sightedness that if untreated can lead to permanent vision loss)
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Follow us on social media, by clicking the link below, and share our posts on World Sight Day to help spread the awareness of vision impairment and blindness!
Use the hashtags #HopeInSight and #WorldSightDay when posting on social media.
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