Prevent Blindness Launches 2024 World Sight Day Activities, Many Dedicated to this Year’s “Love Your Eyes” Focus on Children’s Vision Issues

Prevent Blindness is uniting with the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) and its member organizations around the world in support of “World Sight Day.” This year’s World Sight Day theme, “Love Your Eyes,” will focus on the unique needs of children’s vision and eye health.

Prevent Blindness is planning a series of events and program partnerships leading up to World Sight Day on Oct. 10, 2024. With support from the Prevention of Blindness Society of Metropolitan Washington, on Thursday, Sept. 12, Prevent Blindness will host a vision screening and eye health education event, and a Congressional Briefing in Washington, D.C.

• World Sight Day Vision Screening and Eye Health Education Event – Rayburn Foyer, 9am – 3pm ET
•  World Sight Day Children’s Vision and Eye Health Congressional Briefing –Rayburn 2044, 11:30am – 1pm ET

Scheduled speakers at the Congressional Briefing include:

• David B. Rein, PhD, Senior Fellow & Program Area Director, NORC at the University of Chicago; Principal Investigator for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Vision and Eye Health Surveillance System (VEHSS)
• John D. Omura, MD, MPH, Medical Officer, Vision Health Initiative, CDC
• Stacy Ayn Lyons, OD, FAAO, Professor and Chair, Specialty Care and Vision Sciences, New England College of Optometry, and Chair of the National Center for Children’s Vision and Eye Health at Prevent Blindness (NCCVEH) Advisory Committee
• Megan Collins, MD, MPH, Allen and Claire Jensen Professor of Ophthalmology,
  Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology, Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine; Berman Institute of Bioethics, Johns Hopkins University, Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; and Vice Chair of the NCCVEH Advisory Committee
• Jenny Goddard, Parent Advocate, Prevent Blindness ASPECT Patient Engagement Program participant
• Sara D. Brown, Director of Government Affairs, Prevent Blindness
• Jeff Todd, President and CEO, Prevent Blindness

The Congressional Briefing will also include information and updates on the recently introduced Early Detection of Vision Impairments for Children (EDVI) Act. The EDVI Act, co-sponsored by Congressional Vision Caucus (CVC) co-chairs, U.S. Representative Gus Bilirakis (FL-12) and U.S. Representative Marc Veasey (TX-33), is legislation that seeks to establish the first federal program for children’s vision, providing grants for states and communities to improve children’s vision and eye health through coordinated systems of care. The EDVI Act is currently endorsed by more than 90 organizations.

Those interested in attending the vision screening and/or Congressional Briefing in Washington, DC, may RSVP here.

New this year, Prevent Blindness is partnering with the National Association of School Nurses to provide a comprehensive World Sight Day toolkit, including bookmarks, stickers, printable hand-outs, and more. Materials are available for a “back to school night” promotion to educate families on children’s vision issues, hold screening events, and request local and state proclamations for World Sight Day. These materials are available to the public.

Prevent Blindness is continuing its collaboration with the Truffles the Kitty Organization by sharing eye health messages over social media, encouraging patching compliance for amblyopia (lazy eye) and general messages to keep children’s vision healthy. Truffles the Kitty stickers are available for download from the NASN and Prevent Blindness toolkit.

Delta Gamma’s annual “Do Good Week” is scheduled for October 9 – 16, which encompasses both World Sight Day and White Cane Awareness Day. Delta Gamma is partnering with Prevent Blindness to provide a variety of educational resources for its members through the Prevent Blindness and Delta Gamma online portal. A toolkit is available for download including stickers, bookmarks, instructions for holding a screening event, activities, displays and informational handouts.

Prevent Blindness and its affiliates and partners will also be hosting World Sight Day education events and free vision screenings. These activities are supported by funding from Amgen.

“World Sight Day provides a great opportunity to align with our partners all across the globe to collectively elevate discussions and bring awareness to the importance of healthy vision and the need for access to eye care for all, especially for our children,” said Jeff Todd, president and CEO of Prevent Blindness. “We encourage parents, professionals, lawmakers and all concerned citizens to join us for World Sight Day and make a positive difference in the lives of others through healthy eyesight.”

For more information on the Prevent Blindness World Sight Day vision screening and eye health education event, and the Congressional Briefing, please visit https://preventblindness.org/calendar/2024-worldsightday-briefing/.

General information on Prevent Blindness and its advocacy efforts may be found at https://advocacy.preventblindness.org/ or by emailing [email protected].

For more information on World Sight Day, please visit iapb.org/world-sight-day/.

About Prevent Blindness
Founded in 1908, Prevent Blindness is the nation’s leading volunteer eye health and safety organization dedicated to fighting blindness and saving sight. Focused on promoting a continuum of vision care, Prevent Blindness touches the lives of millions of people each year through public and professional education, advocacy, certified vision screening and training, community and patient service programs and research. These services are made possible through the generous support of the American public. Together with a network of affiliates, Prevent Blindness is committed to eliminating preventable blindness in America. For more information, visit us at PreventBlindness.org, and follow us on Facebook, X, Instagram, Threads, LinkedIn, TikTok and YouTube.