The world will focus on eye care awareness as World Sight day is celebrated on 13th October 2022. This year’s theme is: “love your eyes”. This day, celebrated annually on the second Thursday of October is called to draw global attention on blindness and visual impairment.
The League of Friends of the Blind [LOFOB] started this awareness with an outreach to Riversdale, Swellendam, George and surrounding areas. The LOFOB team met with other service providers in the health care sector making them aware of the services provided by LOFOB. These services includes prevention of blindness by encouraging good care of the eyes. Visually impaired individuals were given mobility skills training and guided on independent living needs. It became clear to the LOFOB outreach team that more needs to be done to prevent blindness through massive public awareness programmes.
According to the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness, 80% of visual impairment is avoidable, being readily treatable and/ or preventable. Future outreach programmes will include eye care awareness at schools as LOFOB believes that if the correct eye care protocols are introduced at an early age, certain blindness conditions can be avoided. There are a number of preventable blindness conditions such as Diabetic Retinopathy which can be prevented or at least controlled with appropriate life style management. Eye health impacts education, employment, and quality of life. LOFOB urges our communities to be proactive in taking care of your eyes and not wait until it is too late. Regular eye checks are key to prevention of blindness. We wish to encourage optometrists and other eye health professionals to allocate some time to doing pro bono eye tests, especially during this eye care month.
Members of the community can contact info@lofob.org.za or 021 7053753 for assistance.
For further comment, please contact Mrs Benita Petersen, LOFOB Manager for Youth and Adult Services on 021 7053753.
Source: LOFOB
Photo: Pixabay
