World Sight Day Information, History, Theme, Greetings & Banners

• Identify and secure the crucial resources worldwide for providing an enhanced level of treatment and prevention programs.
• Promote the development, implementation and planning of the strategies of Vision 2020 with the help of National Programs.
• Enhance the profile of the causes and solutions of avoidable blindness among the people.

• Eye care tips to deal with computer-stress and other common visual problems.
• Prescription of medication and lens power, if required.
• Inclusive eye screening exam, which will check the visual status of the eye and also screen for diseases such as glaucoma, cataract etc.
• Medical appointment on any other eye-related problems.
• Instant blood sugar test to check for diabetes and possibility of diabetic retinopathy.

Canada

World Sight Day in Canada is promoted by the Canadian association of optometrists. Every year more than 50,000 Canadians lose their sight. The Optometrists organization in Canada urges people to participate in the World Sight Day challenge. The challenge is an international level and yearly fund raising campaign that helps people with the condition of blindness. People can easily participate in the campaigns by giving annual or monthly donations or even before the prescribed World Sight Day of the year. The day provides a great way to the people of the country to make contributions and help people with vision and eye issues.

Eye camps are also organized in several parts of Canada to mark the day.

Italy

Every year, World Sight Day is observed in Italy with much enthusiasm. Around 100 cities of the country take part in numerous free initiatives in which gadgets and leaflets are distributed among the individuals. Free eye checks are also performed in many cities of Italy on the day. The events organized on the day are promoted by the International Agency for Prevention of Blindness, Italy along with the regional support from the Blind Union of Italy. Events like press conference, live programs and ophthalmic prevention programs are also conducted on this day.

Australia

World Sight Day is also celebrated in Australia to spread awareness about blindness and visual impairment. More than 400,000 people of Australia are blind or have low vision. Thus, Australia acknowledges the day with greater zeal. VISION 2020 Australia joins the community for blindness and visual impairment to mark the day.

As majority of the conditions relating to the eyes have no pain or symptoms in the initial periods, the government of Australia feels that proper examinations of the eyes are very important to make sure about the treatment and early detection of the eye conditions in order to prevent vision loss and blindness. Thus, the Australian Government organizes various free camps that check the eye health of every citizen in the country on this day.

Europe

In Europe, the European Coalition for Vision (ECV) along with the other champions of equality and eye health worldwide, organize events to promote the World Sight Day. The works of the associations that contribute towards the blindness are applauded on this day. Special efforts are undertaken to publish useful materials for people who are visually impaired or blind or are not able to read the printed works. Campaigns are also undertaken to generate funds towards maintaining the eye health of the country.

Some More Suggestions For Celebrating World Sight Day:

India is a vast country with a very large population. It also has the largest blind population in the world i.e. 15 million. One out of three blind people in the world are from India. Out of these 15 million blind people, corneal blindness reported cases around 3.5 million, which is amongst the most popular reasons of blindness with around 30,000 cases added every year.

World Sight Day must be celebrated in India at huge levels to make its citizens aware of the consequences which come with vision impairment. Here are some suggestions to celebrate the day in India:

• Make World Sight Day a donation day. Organize donation camps which will ultimately help people suffering from visual impairment conditions. If you are working in any organization, encourage the whole staff to make donations towards the issue.
• Classes can be offered to children to help them learn on how to protect their sight.
• A global fest must be held on the day to spread awareness at a gigantic level.
• Vitamin A should be distributed to children in the various states of the country.
• Eye screening centers should be set in the major cities of every state and encourage people to get their eyes tested for free for the World Sight Day.
• Host an exciting contest on social media. Ask the patients to upload pictures of their preferable sights like family portrait or a beach holiday and tag it along using #WorldSightDay. You can pick three winners and reward them with a $20 gift card to a movie theater or a local café.

Some tips for your healthy eyes:

• Always wear sunglasses while going out to protect your eyes from the harmful ultraviolet rays of the sun.
• Eat properly and try to include more and more green vegetables in your diet.
• While performing any hazardous work, wear protective glares or safety glasses.
• Smoking is very harmful for the eyes. It includes risk of diseases like optic nerve damage, cataract and macular degeneration. So, do not smoke.
• While working on the computer, give rest to your eyes after every 20 minutes. Try to look away for around 20 seconds from the computer screen.
• Go for routine check- up of your eyes.
• Maintain adequate hygiene and do not touch your eyes or rub them before properly washing your hands.
• Exercise on a regular basis as physical activity makes your body as well as the eyes healthy.
• For any kind of eye infections, avoid use of the over-the-counter medications.

You can share these tips also with your friends, family, colleagues etc. on World Sight Day to benefit other individuals.

Conclusion:

World Sight Day is an important event that focuses on what can be done to help visually impaired people. Not even minor eye problems should be taken for granted, as you never know how that little eye problem might end up becoming a huge problem in the end. It might get really critical for the ones suffering from the diseases of the eye as eye is also an important sense organ of the human body. Awareness about visual impairment is must as four out of five people suffer from visual impairment and blindness.

Celebration of the day is very important as blindness is a very critical issue that has affected the lives of people worldwide. It is very significant to support blind people making it easier for the society to operate. The day also serves on what can be done to avoid blindness. World Sight Day is the best platform to raise awareness for the issue and generate funds for the betterment of the visually impaired people and support their lives in a better manner.