News & Events
World Sight Day
World Sight Day is a global initiative providing an opportunity to raise the profile of the causes of blindness and vision impairment and the preventative measures. It takes place on the second Thursday in October every year.
World Sight Day 2007
World Sight Day 2007 was on Thursday 11 October and the theme was:
Our Vision for Children is...
- that they have the best possible vision to last their lifetime (prevention focus)
- that they can all lead active and independent lives (low vision focus)
- that all have access to good eye care services (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander focus)
- that their birth place does not deny them the right to sight (global focus)
To draw attention to the issue of children and eye health, Vision 2020 Australia´s members are holding events Australia-wide on World Sight Day. For more information about Vision 2020 Australia's members please visit our Members page.
Parents should be more vigilant about their children´s eye health
Parents need to be aware about looking for signs of eye or vision problems in their children.
Eye professionals agree that the vision of all children should be screened at birth and followed up with regular examinations throughout their years at school.
It has been proven that early detection of vision loss and therefore early intervention is a key factor in improving the outcome for children with vision problems.
World Sight Day 2006
World Sight Day 2006 focused on low vision. Nearly half a million Australians are blind or vision impaired. Amazingly, only 3% access services that could make a significant difference to their health and livelihoods.
Vision 2020 Australia and their member organisations asked Australians to take action on World Sight Day: Low vision? Look into it!
World Sight Day 2005
The Hon Tony Abbott MP, Minister for Health & Ageing launched World Sight Day 2005 on 13 October. Over 140 federal politicians showed their commitment to recognising eye health and vision care as an important health issue by signing the 'VISION 2020 The Right to Sight' Global Declaration of Support.
The main initiative of VISION 2020 globally is to collect 20 million signatures from politicians and key influencers around the world. The response in Australia has been very encouraging.
