World Sight Day is celebrated with the aim of raising public awareness of preventable blindness, visual impairment and eye health services.
When does World Sight Day take place?
World Sight Day, which is celebrated every year on Thursday, the second week of October, this year falls on October 8th^. It is a global event designed to draw attention to blindness and visual impairment.
The importance of eye health
The eye is without doubt an important organ. We can recognize the eye as a person’s window to the outside world. Of course, the loss of sight has a negative effect on human life, as people fulfill their daily tasks and duties through their eyesight.
On the other hand, the eye is the sensory organ that is most rapidly affected by the aging process. Sometimes serious age-related diseases can also affect the eye.
According to research data from the World Health Organisation (WHO), over 285 million people worldwide suffer from visual impairment. People with vision problems usually need the support of a caregiver or helper in their daily activities.
In parallel with technological progress, many innovative alternatives for people with visual problems are being developed today. However, most people in Asia and Africa have no access to these innovations.
World Sight Day – We help people with vision loss
Today hundreds of thousands of people in Asia and Africa suffer from vision loss due to cataracts. Without treatment, cataract disease–which occurs in Africa under the effect of strong sunlight and malnutrition–leads to loss of vision. For this reason it is possible to encounter cataract patients in all age groups, whether young, old or still in childhood. Cataracts in both eyes occur even in young children. This visual impairment is almost the average reality for people in Asia and Africa.
At WEFA International Humanitarian Aid Organization, we have reached the countries of the Sahara such as Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Chad, Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Ghana, Togo and Benin with the “Cataract” project we have implemented. On the other hand, we have reached cataract patients in Afghanistan, Pakistan and in Bangladesh and helped them regain their eye health with a small surgery . At WEFA, we closely followed the post-operative processes of the patients and offered post-operative care.
At WEFA, all these efforts are aimed at ensuring that people live in better conditions. You, our benefactors, can help someone with cataract to get daylight by donating just 65 Euros.
WE WERE THERE!
When I saw people who had been condemned to go blind for years because of a lack of medical resources, I felt great pain. However, these people can recover with a simple eye operation. DR. Rukiye Uslup
Cataract patients in poor regions never have the opportunity to undergo surgery anywhere. For this reason, patients and their relatives look at us with gratitude. The experience of their respectful and loving treatment and the radiance in their healed eyes gives them inner peace that can not be described in words. DR. Saban Coskun
Think of the 20 percent of children born blind. Young people who live a difficult life due to blindness and have hardly any work potential. Older people who need help to get from one place to another or even need help with food intake. In this sense, it is very degrading to be dependent on someone. We offer free and voluntary health care to people in difficult circumstances. In return, people are happy and pray. I can not describe what a deep sense of fulfillment this is. Nurse Ayşe Author
