World Sight Day 2015 

World Sight Day is the international day of awareness, held annually to focus attention on the global issue of avoidable blindness and visual impairment. This year, we are focussing on Eye Care for All, on everybody who needs eye care services – everybody! We need to find ways to bring eye care services to the most vulnerable groups and ensure that access to eye care is not limited by gender, geographic location or financial status.

What you need to know

• 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.

How to get involved