Australia launches its World Sight Day Campaign

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Australia: Love Your Eyes Kids –

World Sight Day is one day in October. Love Your Eyes is a year-round campaign. This was the central message from Vision 2020 Australia & IAPB’s World Sight Day campaign launch in Sydney on May 13th.

The theme of World Sight Day 2024 is of course: Love Your Eyes Kids – a theme that resonated with the IAPB and Vision 2020 member organizations in attendance. Caroline Casey, IAPB Global President, noted that children are integral to the achievement of the 2030 In Sight strategy – if we can raise awareness of avoidable vision loss amongst younger generations, if we can deliver services and treatments for children in and out of school then we are well on the way to achieving our 2030 goals.

Carly Iles, CEO of Vision 2020, summed it up best: The Love Your Eyes campaign is a powerful tool to create meaningful change. Improving equity and access to eye care for children is critical to unlocking education and economic opportunities and we look forward to working with IAPB and our members to achieve this.

The political will of our leaders is also crucial to success. Tim James, Member for Willoughby in the New South Wales Parliament, and Chair of the NSW Parliamentary Friends of Vision detailed his own experience of vision impairment as a child. The personalization of Tim’s story – at one stage his parents were told he would go blind – reminds us that eye health impacts us all. It requires constant activation to ensure it remains in the collective consciousness of our leaders and the public. Not just on the second Thursday in October.

Thanks to our hosts RANZCO and Fred Hollows for their support of our regional activities.