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Despite being held in the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic, many organisations marked World Sight Day 2020. This year’s theme, “Hope In Sight” resonated with a world facing many challenges due to the pandemic. World Sight Day 2020 was trending in Australia and UK and even the UK’s Royal Family joined in!
In a reflection of the change the world has undergone, a lot of events went online – webinars, virtual seminars, virtual walks and rallies. In our report, we captured 255 events from 47 countries that IAPB members either directly held or supported. We had 87 of our members marking the day. The highlight: IAPB Italia marked World Sight Day in 100 Italian cities!
The number of vision screenings that took place came down given the restrictions in place in different countries.
In a major recognition for the sector, Her Majesty The Queen and Her Royal Highness The Countess of Wessex held a call with IAPB and three eye health heroes – a real honour.
The Queen and The Countess spoke with Natrajan Vengadesan from Aravind Eye Care System in India, Jennifer Merryweather, who works with the Indigenous Australia Program at The Fred Hollows Foundation, Dr Jalikatu Mustapha who works with Sightsavers and is one of only four ophthalmologists in Sierra Leone and Peter Holland the Chief Executive of IAPB.
The report overall has 447 events from 126 countries. Saudi Arabia, where celebrations are normally held on a large-scale national level also recalibrated its plans, with awareness messages being broadcast in malls. In the African-region, national-level celebrations were still observed in countries like Cameroon, Mali, Tanzania to name a few.
Did you mark World Sight Day 2020 and don’t find your event on here? Write to us at [email protected] to have it included.
