HCP Raises Awareness Across the Globe On World Sight Day
Key events in 3 countries highlight HCP's efforts to end needless blindness
October 10 was World Sight Day, an annual day of awareness held on the second Thursday of October, to focus global attention on blindness and vision impairment. It is organized through the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB). World Sight Day is the most important advocacy event on the eye health calendar.
We know now that 217 million people have moderate to severe vision impairment and 37 million people are blind. 1.2 billion people don’t have access to glasses. Over 3 out of 4–>75%–of the world’s vision-impaired are avoidably so.
On this important day of the year, HCP and partners worked across the globe and around the clock to bring the joy of sight restoration to people that need it the most.
Ghana
HCP supported a 5-day outreach event in Cape Coast, Ghana in honor of World Sight Day.
The surgical team included ophthalmologists from Cape Coast Teaching Hospital and KATH, as well as Dr. Bo Wiafe, Watborg Eye Service’s Medical Director, and HCP volunteer ophthalmologist Dr. John Welling who oversees HCP’s Ghana program. HCP, along with our partners, performed 713 sight-restoring surgeries during this one week outreach event -- one of the highest volume outreach events in Ghana.
Ethiopia
HCP and partners supported an outreach event at Quiha in Mekelle, Ethiopia, where 137 surgeries were performed. In addition, on World Sight Day, HCP Country Representative, Dr. Liknaw Adamu, spoke in front of the Deputy Minister of Health to raise awareness for curable blindness.
Nepal
World Sight Day celebrations were held at the Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology, Tilganga’s network of Community Eye Centers, and the Hetauda Community Eye Hospital.
We’d like to extend our greatest thanks to all our supporters; every gift gives us the opportunity to help someone see again and brings us one step closer to eradicating needless blindness across the world.
