October 11, 2012 
World Sight Day is an annual day of awareness to focus global attention on blindness, visual impairment and rehabilitation of the visually impaired held on the second Thursday in October…
World Sight Day is observed around the world by all partners involved in preventing visual impairment or restoring sight. It is also the main advocacy event for the prevention of blindness and for “Vision 2020: The Right to Sight”, a global effort to prevent blindness created by WHO and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness.
VISION 2020 is the global initiative for the elimination of avoidable blindness, a joint programme of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) with an international membership of NGOs, professional associations, eye care institutions and corporations.
On World Sight Day, VISION 2020 members work together to:
- Raise public awareness of blindness & vision impairment as major international public health issues
- Influence Governments/Ministers of Health to participate in and designate funds for national blindness prevention programmes
- Educate target audiences about blindness prevention, about VISION 2020 and to generate support for VISION 2020 programme activities
International Key Messages:
- Approximately 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 – i.e. readily treatable and/or preventable
- Restorations of sight, and blindness prevention strategies are among the most cost-effective interventions in health care
- The number of people blind from infectious causes has greatly reduced in the past 20 years
- An estimated 19 million children are visually impaired
- About 65 % of all people who are visually impaired are aged 50 and older, while this age group comprises only 20% of the world’s population
- Increasing elderly populations in many countries mean that more people will be at risk of age-related visual impairment.
Taken from: www.vision2020.org