Eye Health Aotearoa – Children’s Eye Health Campaign and World Sight Day

Eye Health Aotearoa (EHA) ran New Zealand’s first Children’s Eye Health Campaign between the 2^nd of September and the 10^th of October 2024. It was a fun campaign involving all intermediate schools in Aotearoa (New Zealand) and over 25 supporting organisations.

As summarised by Inhae Park, EHA Trustee and Council Member of the New Zealand Association of Optometrists, “It was a successful campaign, reaching a wide audience with important messages on how children can take care of their eyes. Eye Health Aotearoa is looking to build on this campaign next year.”

The aim of the Children’s Eye Health Campaign was to raise awareness and educate children and their carers regarding the behavioural changes they could make to reduce the risk of myopia (shortsightedness). The campaign encouraged children and their carers to spend time outdoors every day, to have less screen time, book an eye test, wear sunglasses, wear seeing glasses if needed, have a healthy diet, and exercise. This preventative initiative was supported by the IAPB, which reported: “Myopia represents an important public health issue in the 21^st Century. Uncorrected myopia is a leading cause of vision impairment; it can contribute to poor academic performance in children”.

The key messages were developed following a review of the literature, liaising with eye health professionals, and consulting the IAPB knowledge hub. An engaging video and a poster which was translated into Māori, Samoan, and Mandarin, were used to share these messages. Effective social media messaging played a significant role in bringing the messages to the attention of the general public. The social media posts were also shared by the IAPB, thus reaching an international audience.

A pilot Sensory Art Competition was also run in a few Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland schools. The children participated in this interactive educational initiative, watching the video several times, seeing the posters in their schools, and having discussions in class. They created wonderful artwork designed to engage people with blindness and low vision by focussing on senses other than vision, thus heightening their awareness of the importance of eye health. One school received vision screening by Specsavers, who identified children with eye health issues requiring further attention. Overall, feedback indicated that the children and teachers were enthusiastic about the campaign, they enjoyed the strategies used, and the children appeared to retain the key messages.

Finally, on World Sight Day, Eye Health Aotearoa collaborated with Auckland libraries to raise awareness of the importance of looking after your eyes at all stages of life. Resources developed for the Children’s Eye Health Campaign (posters and video), IAPB posters, and fun activities from partner organisations were shared with the participating libraries. The campaign was integrated with the school holiday programmes, which ensured a high volume of children, together with their caregivers. The libraries were great partners, with vision and reading aligning so well.

Eye Health Aotearoa would like to thank the campaign funders, One Foundation and The Potter Masonic Trust as well as all the children, schools and organisations who participated in the campaign. Eye Health Aotearoa looks forward to running another eye health awareness campaign next year.