CHARITYEYECARE

World Sight Day 2023

Happy World Sight Day 2023 from the Eyes2Eyes team!!!

World Sight Day 2023 is an international awareness event that focuses on promoting understanding of vision impairment, blindness, and the significance of maintaining good eye health. It happens annually on the second Thursday of each October. It serves as a moment to underscore the importance of routine eye check-ups, the early identification and treatment of eye-related issues, and equitable access to eye care for everyone. Additionally, World Sight Day emphasises the worldwide commitment to eradicating avoidable blindness and enhancing the well-being of individuals facing vision challenges. This year 2023, the World Sight Day Theme is “Love your eyes at work”, which is a global call to all corporate leaders to prioritise their worker’s eye health and understand the importance of the vision at the workplace.

Visual impairment can impact individuals across all age groups, with over 2.2 billion people worldwide experiencing either near or distance vision issues. Remarkably, about 1 billion of these instances are preventable or can be readily treated through the use of eyeglasses or cataract surgery. Furthermore, vision problems contribute significantly to a substantial global economic loss due to reduced workplace productivity resulting from poor vision.

For the 2023 celebration, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched “WHOeyes”, a free app for the general public to check how well they can see things close up and at a distance and learn how they can protect their eyes. The app is user-friendly and can be used to check visual acuity, which is a measure of how well the eye can distinguish shapes and details at a given distance.  The app is intended to encourage people to regularly test vision, but it does not replace the need for regular eye checks by an eye care professional.

Additionally, The International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IABP), the sponsor of World Sight Day, encourages human resources professionals / operational health and safety officers / business owners to download free educational resources from their website and share them with staff regularly.

While World Sight Day is only 1 day, interested parties can donate or register for fundraising to continue to provide underserved people in need with the opportunity to access needed eyecare services. Our work at Eyes2Eyes continues to focus on preventing and treating corneal blindness.

Photo by Gaël Gaborel – OrbisTerrae on Unsplash

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