Hey guys, Shaya has given me the go-ahead to promote World Sight Day at the upcoming tournament. This means some proceeds will go to funding this charity drive. Hopefully you all don’t hate me for pimping this ._. To begin with, some information I’ve written in about 45 minutes:
World Sight Day is held on the 9th October 2008 by Vision2020 aiming to “raise public awareness of blindness and low vision impairment as major international health issues”. The majority of the population understand the importance of supporting the research to combat breast cancer and genetic diseases, but take for granted the effects that blindness and visual impairment can have on those unfortunate to suffer from it.
But blindness is incurable.
In the past, the definition of ‘blindness’ followed this generalisation – the idea of ‘blindness’ is encapsulated in a person fully reliant on guide dogs. The World Health Organisation has recently expanded their definition of blindness to those heavily affected by refractive errors* and diseases such as cataracts, trachoma, glaucoma, and many others. ‘Visual impairment’ is a category of visual acuity which precedes blindness.
* ‘Refractive errors’ are the general description given to myopia (short-sightedness), hyperopia (long-sightedness), and astigmatism (distorted vision at all distances).
How many people are affected by ‘blindness’ and visual impairment?
The World Health Organisation has estimated that 2.3 billion people are affected by ametropia in one way or another – this accounts to almost a third of the global population. Of these,
153 million people suffer visual impairment from uncorrected refractive error, contributing to the
blindness of 8 million people. Over 90% of the world’s visually impaired people live in low- and middle-income countries.
Without effective, major intervention, the number of blind people worldwide is projected to increase to 76 million by 2020.
How can I help?
Without treatment, the blind and vision impaired suffer from severe socioeconomic consequences. If developed during younger years, the child is unable to participate in his or her education system. Lost educational and employment opportunities coincide, and eventually they rely on their family for economic support. With age the blind and vision impaired continue to be sustained by their children, whose education also falters. Hence the cycle of deepening poverty repeats.
The good thing about visual impairment and blindness is that
75% can be easily corrected with very affordable treatment. For refractive errors, simply placing a pair of spectacles can mean all the difference. Cataract surgery is merely a quick 15-minute procedure.
You can help by just providing a simple donation. Vision2020 and WHO aim to eliminate the main causes of avoidable blindness by the year 2020 by providing effective treatment and imparting skills to train optometrists and ophthalmologists in developing countries to provide a self-sustaining economic model in combating blindness.
For more information, links are here:
http://www.givingsight.org/
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/pr79/en/
http://www.v2020.org/page.asp?section=000100010007
