Oct. 7, 2015
The North American eyecare community will once again join forces in a coalition to support Optometry Giving Sight and its annual fundraising campaign, the World Sight Day Challenge, held throughout September and October.
They will be joined by A&A Optical, Advance Optical, Allergan, Art Optical, Bard Optical, ClearVision Optical, Contamac, DAC Vision, Demandforce, Essilor Canada, Europa, Eye Pros, Eye Recommend, Gateway Professional Network, GPLI, Hilco, Jobson Medical Information, Match, Menicon, Modern Optical, Oasis Medical, Optos, OSI, POG Labs, RX Optical, Reptile Sun, Ron’s Optical, Signet Armorlite, Slack Incorporated, SynergEyes, Tura, Wave Contact Lens System, Westgroupe, Zeiss (USA & Canada) and Zyloware, all of whom are participating in the Challenge in some way.
In addition to these companies, mobile vision clinics, local vision screening and testing, fundraising at individual practices and a range of imaginative donation drives and donation-matching commitments will take place to support the cause.
“The World Sight Day Challenge is now a major event within the global optometric community, and it’s a great way to engage with staff, customers and colleagues to help provide ‘Eyecare for All’,” says Clive Miller, CEO of Optometry Giving Sight. “We are grateful for the support that we receive and encourage all eye and vision care companies, networks and practices to take the Challenge and make a donation so that we can help end avoidable blindness and give sight and hope to the millions of people in need.”
World Sight Day is an annual day of awareness held on the second Thursday of October to focus global attention on blindness and vision impairment. It is coordinated by the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) as part of the VISION 2020 Global Initiative. It is supported by eye health organizations around the world—including Optometry Giving Sight—and is included on the official World Health Organization (WHO) calendar. 2015 is the third year of the WHO Global Action Plan which has the rolling theme: Universal Eye Health. This year, the call to action for World Sight Day is: Eye Care for All.
For more information about the World Sight Day Challenge, call +1 888 OGS GIVE (USA); +1 (403) 670-2619 (Canada) or visit www.givingsight.org.
