This is my favourite time of year. I love everything that is fall – the leaves changing colour, apple picking, cozy sweaters, back to school eye examinations … and kicking our Optometry Giving Sight fundraising into high gear!
The World Sight Day Challenge is an international fundraising campaign with the goal of ending avoidable blindness and vision impairment worldwide. More than 1.2 billion people around the globe are visually impaired simply because they do not have access to eye care services. This visual impairment can have a significant impact on a person’s independence, in some cases making daily tasks near impossible. Educational and employment opportunities can also be limited.
Donations allow Optometry Giving Sight to fund the solution by supporting programs that: Train – local eye care professionals, Establish – optometry schools and vision centers for sustainability, Deliver – eye care and low-cost glasses. There are currently 117 sustainable eye care projects in 39 countries supported by donations to Optometry Giving Sight.
I have had the opportunity to be involved on the front line in providing eye care services, as well as mentoring new optometry graduates, in regions of the world that are alarmingly underserviced. I have witnessed how transformative it can be for someone to regain their vision. These are children who now will be able to attend school, farmers who can now tend their fields, young adults who can now apply for jobs that were unattainable before and seniors who no longer feel that they are a burden to others.
World Sight Day is on October 10th. This is the one day where we recognize the goal to have eye care available in every corner of the world. However, our personal goal is to educate our patients and community every day.
Please consider supporting this worthy cause.
