World Sight Day is an annual day of awareness held on the second Thursday of October to focus global attention on blindness and vision impairment. On this day influence is inferred to Governments / Ministers of Health to participate in and designate funds for national blindness prevention programs, as well as, educating target audiences about blindness prevention, about VISION 2020 and to generate support for the programs activities.
International Key Messages include:
- Ca 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
- yet 80% of visual impairment is avoidable - (readily treatable &/or preventable
Following is a summarized version of the World Blind Union press release concerning this years World Sight Day.
The United Nations finalized a new set of development goals, the Sustainable Development goals (SDGs), that direct international development work and funding for the next 15 years. The civil society has campaigned for data to effectively measure the impact of the SDGs on different groups, including persons with disabilities. It is vital that this data is readily available in accessible formats to be relevant to low vision and blind persons.
Eye health is to be a part of the measurement of success of the goals' targets and indicators. Combating eye diseases is expected to become more difficult as the World Health Organization (WHO) predicts that eye disease will have doubled from 1990-2020. Eye disease is seen mostly in developing countries; containing of 90% of global cases.
In poorer countries, only 10% of blind or low vision persons attend school and 90% are left unemployed and therefore do not have the opportunity to participate in society as a whole. These factors unfortunately lead many blind and low vision persons to live in poverty and social isolation.
The
World Blind Union is asking that all concerned parties, especially those in government and international development organizations, to work toward implementing the SDGs and to no longer leave persons with disabilities out of the global development agenda. Additionally, they are asking to ensure that the SDGs will include projects on the prevention of poor eye health, awareness raising initiatives on disability and eye health, and services that offer a continuum of care to address the unique needs of those who live with low vision and blindness.
Together we can take this opportunity to establish a new global development framework that will decrease the global burden of eye disease and create real and positive outcomes to improve the quality of the lives of those that are blind and visually impaired across the globe.