World Sight Day 2023: Date, history, significance and theme

World Sight Day 2023: Here's all you need to know about the date, history, significance and theme of World Sight Day this year

Also known as ‘World Eye Day’ or ‘World Vision Day’, World Sight Day is an international day of awareness to focus attention on and encourage everyone to think about the importance of their own eye health. World Sight Day is globally observed to raise awareness about eye health and to recognise the work done by the thousands of ophthalmologists across the world to fix vision impairment.

World Sight Day 2023: Date, history, significance and theme (Photo by Twitter/Radio2000_ZA)

Date:

World Sight Day is observed every year on October 12, 2023.

History:

World Sight Day (WSD) is coordinated by the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB). The day began to be officially observed as an IAPB event in the year 2000 and has been marked in several different ways in nations across the world each year since then.

The then Queen of the United Kingdom had joined the awareness campaign for World Sight Day in the year 2020, marking a milestone in recognition.

Significance:

Eye health impacts education, employment, quality of life, poverty and so many other sustainable development goals hence, WSD aims for organisations and the public to come together to encourage governments, corporations, institutions and individuals to actively support universal access to eye health and ensure that everyone counts. World Sight Day is supported by over 150 IAPB member organisations, including every major eye care NGO in the world, apex professional bodies for ophthalmology and optometry, teaching hospitals and corporations, united in working together to eliminate avoidable blindness and visual impairment.

Theme:

The theme for World Sight Day 2023 is “Focusing on preservation of vision in the workplace.”