Today is World Sight Day, a day that aims to eliminate avoidable blindness across the globe.World Sight Day 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.