October 8 2015 is World Sight Day and at Eye Etiquette we’re celebrating by giving away prizes to everyone who either makes a cash donation or brings in an old pair of glasses to donate to Optometry Giving Sight! Eye Etiquette will match all donations made to Optometry Giving Sight on October 8 – so your donation will go twice as far!
We are so fortunate to live in Canada where we have easily accessible eye care. Dr. Carl Dumas, an ophthalmology resident working at the Public Eye Hospital in Haiti described the state of eye health in his country as “It’s bad, really bad. They are not having any eye care. Not at all.” Haiti, which has a population of 11 million people, only has 3 optometrists. Optometry Giving Sight helps those in developing countries such as Haiti to receive the eye care they so desperately need.
Impaired vision is still the world’s leading physical disability. Of the 7.2 billion people on the planet, 4.3 billion are affected, of whom 2.5 billion do not benefit from corrective solutions. A number of barriers prevent one-third of all the people on earth from the benefits of the basic visual correction they need. Accessibility and affordability are key challenges, however the main reason so many people still lack vision correction is that do not know they have a problem. They may never have had an eye test or even experienced what it is like to see properly.
The cost of impaired vision impaired vision impacts the ability of people to study, work, care for their families, and ultimately contribute to the economy. Worldwide, the loss of productivity is estimated at 272 billion dollars*.
For example:
• 60% of road accident costs can be linked to poor vision
• 1 in 4 children around the world has problems at school as a result of uncorrected vision
• Vision problems increase the risk of falling with the result that broken bones are seven times more likely in elderly people
Even Canada can improve it’s citizens eye health, it is estimated that:
• Nearly 25% of school-age children have vision problems
• Only 14% of children under 6 years of age receive professional eye care despite eye exams being free in BC and other provinces
So what can you do to help? Come in to Eye Etiquette and give a cash donation to Optometry Giving Sight and your donation will be matched by Eye Etiquette on October 8 – you’ll also get to choose a free prize from our prize box! You can also bring in any old glasses that you are no longer using for donation and can also choose a prize from our prize box! These glasses will be taken to vision camps around the world where they will benefit those not able to afford glasses of their own.
How donations can help:
$50 can help provide a study kit to an optometry student
$100 can help provide 20 people with access to an eye exam and glasses
$300 can help to provide a child size trial frame for a community based vision center
$1,200 could pay a month’s salary for an optometrist to see up to 40 patients a day
Sources:
1) Optometry Giving Sight
2) Smith et al: Potential lost productivity resulting from the global burden of uncorrected refractive
error – Bulletin of World Health Organization 2009, 87: 431-437 (adjusted to 2015 population
data)