published: Thursday ,November 29th

World Sight Day, observed annually on the second Thursday of October, is a global event meant to draw attention on blindness and vision impairment. The Lions Club International Foundation originally initiated it in 2000. Then it was integrated into the VISION 2020 strategy which is coordinated by IAPB (International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness) in cooperation with the World Health Organization. Since then, the world sight day has become the most important advocacy and communications event on the eye health calendar. As the studies show; millions of people around the globe are functionally blind because they didn’t get access to appropriate medical service promptly. Numerically, approximately 1.3 billion people around the world live with some form of vision impairment, and 80% of them could have been cured if they had appropriate early access to eye exams and glasses, according to WHO (world health organization). That’s why the World Sight Day initiative was introduced to the world, to avoid as much as we can visual impairment. This year the IAPB has chosen the call to action “Eye care everywhere” to let us draw attention to eye care issues so that everyone, everywhere has access to good eye health. At Magrabi foundation, we work as a part of the global community committed to the Global Initiative vision 2020 which is “A world in which nobody is needlessly visually impaired, where those with unavoidable vision loss can achieve their full potential.” The Global Initiative was set up to: “Intensify and accelerate prevention of blindness activities to achieve the goal of eliminating avoidable blindness by 2020.” The VISION 2020 Global Initiative has subsequently been complemented and built upon by a series of additional plans. In 2006, VISION 2020 stakeholders developed an action plan for the period 2006-11, which extended the remit to focus not only upon the elimination of avoidable blindness but to include visual impairment – particularly that caused by the uncorrected refractive errors. Also, in accordance with this year theme “Eye Care Everywhere” Magrabi foundation have organized several outreach convoys covering a large geographical area of the unprivileged parts of Egypt, these convoys went to Dahshur, Matarya, Abshuway, Gharbya, and have examined 1270 resident. We target to make the total number around 3500 by extending our World Sight Day activities to the end of the year, sending more four convoys to Belqas, Dakhla and Kharga oases, Al Wadi Al Gedid, and Nubia. In addition to the convoys, we’ve announced a free examination day on October 11th in all Magrabi Foundation's satellite clinics located in (Haram, Saff, Badrashin, Shubra Al Khaimah, Qalyoub, Nubarya, and Kafr Al-Sheikh) our doctors have carried out 1172 free examinations for walk-in patients on that single day. Moreover, we’ve started an online campaign to raise awareness about World Sight Day itself. We’ve produced an awareness video, to focus on how the Egyptian culture value eyes and sight, in order to create a connection between the audience and the cause of WSD. The video went viral and received very encouraging feedback with more than a million views on Facebook and 300k views on YouTube. That video was produced with Arabic voice-over and both Arabic and English Subtitles. At Magrabi foundation we work hard to offer equitable eye healthcare solutions, regardless of race, age, gender, ethnicity, income, location, etc. By making our solutions more accessible, affordable and acceptable to the general public, we ensure optimal clinical care, improve the environment, positively change health behaviors, and empower personal, social and economic goals to impact the lives of many generations to come. We strive to allow people in getting early access to proper Eyecare, and everybody can play a role in that cause, and you have a big part! Your task is to; Plan for an eye examination, for yourself or others, look around in your family, especially for those who are vulnerable: young, school-going children, the elderly, those with diabetes. Take the right action now and contact one of Magrabi’s foundation

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