All about the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB)

On Thursday October 13th we celebrated World Sight Day to help close the gap between access to eye care and the best eyesight possible, for everyone everywhere. We are not limiting the celebration to just the 13th though, we are celebrating all month long! We are donating $4 from every eye exam for the entire month of October to the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) in support of their Love Your Eyes campaign.

Read on to learn all about the amazing IAPB and the great work that they do. The IAPB was founded in 1975 and forms a global alliance in the world of eye health care, with more than 150 organisations in over 100 countries working together for a world where everyone has universal access to eye care. IAPB wants eye health to be Accessible, Available, and Affordable to everyone by the year 2030 and they are working to achieve this goal through their #LoveYourEyes campaign that strives for accessible eyecare, available sight tests, and affordable glasses on a global scale.

Did you know that over one billion of the most vulnerable people worldwide have poor vision and no access to treatment? Ninety percent of sight loss is either preventable or treatable. When everyone sees well there is a direct, positive impact on personal well-being and safety, and when people are living a high quality of life when seeing well there is a larger-scale positive impact on global education and economic productivity.

Here at Merivale Vision Care, we are doing everything we can to help you #LoveYourEyes and support this important initiative because we believe everyone has a right to live their best quality of life, be able to work in their best capacity, feel as safe as possible and garner the best education they can through seeing well. The IAPB website houses amazing resources to learn more about global eye health and how you can bolster it. You can donate, participate in education opportunities such as webinars, or look at their Vision Atlas.

The Vision Atlas is a unique advocacy and reference tool that creates a virtual “vision loss” map of the world. The Vision Atlas backed by data, to help the global eye care community understand how various parts of the world are affected by vision loss compared to one another. Overall, the IAPB strives to facilitate a culture of learning, collaboration, and evidence-informed practice in global eye health care, and they share how you can help too.

Ready to #LoveYourEyes? Book with us now to schedule your eye exam and help us bring sight to everyone around the world.