Around 640 million people in the world are avoidably blind or vision impaired as they don’t have access to medical examinations and appropriate spectacles.
To urge people to get their eyes examined, World Sight Day on October 11 is raising the alarm on the need to fund and support eye care systems which will address the unnecessary tragedy, said a press release issued by Brien Holden Vision Institute Foundation (BHVIF) on Wednesday.
World Sight Day is an initiative of “Vision 2020: The Right to Sight”, a joint undertaking of the World Health Organisation and International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness.
BHVIF, a non-profit organisation which facilitates the establishment of permanent eye care services, has joined hands with the Pakistan Optometric Society to conduct eye health screening and awareness for vulnerable groups across the country, providing vision screenings and spectacles to around 5,000 people.
Those in need of medical or surgical intervention are referred to tertiary eye hospitals.
For International White Cane Safety Day on October 12, the institute, in collaboration with the Pakistan Blind Cricket Council, will host a cricket match as well.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 11th, 2012.
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