World Sight Day (WSD) is an annual day of awareness held on the second Thursday of October, to focus global attention on blindness and vision impairment. WSD is co-ordinated by IAPB, as part of the VISION 2020: The Right to Sight initiative.
The theme, and certain core materials are generated by IAPB, but all events are organised independently by members and supporters of VISION 2020 37 MILLION PEOPLE ARE BLIND and 124 million have low vision 75% OF BLINDNESS IS AVOIDABLE – either by prevention or treatment THE HUMANITARIAN ISSUE – 100 million men, women and children will be saved from going blind, and from the poverty and social exclusion vision loss can entail, by the successful implementation of VISION 2020 THE ECONOMIC FACTOR – US$223 billion (estimate) will be saved by a successful VISION 2020
VISION 2020:The Right to Sight is a joint initiative of the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness and the World Health Organization, with an international coalition of NGOs, professional bodies, institutions and corporations, which aims to eliminate avoidable blindness by the year 2020 On World Sight Day organisations worldwide work together to raise awareness of the global movement for the elimination of avoidable blindness
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