Today is World Sight Day, a day that aims to eliminate avoidable blindness across the globe.
Up to 80% of blindness could be treated or prevented. However, since 90% of people with impaired vision live in developing countries treatment is rarely available. Women especially face barriers in receiving adequate eye health care. There are about 285 million people with impaired vision worldwide. 39 million of them are blind, and 246 million have low vision. Approximately 19 million of these people are children.
World Sight Day is working together with the World Health Organization on a “Vision 2020: Right to Sight” campaign, a global initiative which includes NGOs, professional associations, and eye care corporations. Vision 2020 was launched in 1999, and the campaign hopes to prevent 100 million people from becoming blind over two decades by eliminating the primary causes of blindness.
Tags: Right to Sight, World Sight Day
Hello, I'm Deborah Swallow and, for the last fifteen years, I've worked in over thirty countries addressing the complexities of people working internationally across multiple cultures, so individuals and organisations alike can gain an authentic competitive edge and win in international markets. 