Call to action on children's vision

A new global campaign designed to bring better vision and eye health to millions of children around the world has been officially launched through a partnership between the Brien Holden Vision Institute and Essilor.

The Our Children’s Vision campaign aims to encourage governments, development agencies, the private sectors and eye care practitioners to work together to achieve the goal of screening the vision of 50 million children worldwide by 2020.

In light of recent research published by the Brien Holden Institute, which reported that half of the world’s population will be myopic by 2050, the organisations feel strongly that ensuring that children have access to eye care is more important than ever before.

“We are potentially facing the biggest public health challenge of our generation,” Professor Kovin Naidoo, CEO of the Brien Holden Vision Institute and campaign director for Our Children’s Vision told OT.

Having spoken about the campaign during his keynote address on myopia at 100% Optical earlier this year, Professor Naidoo added: “This trend can be slowed down through preventative or corrective care, but only if a child is reached while their eyes are still developing, and an effective eye health programme in schools would have an unprecedented impact.”

Professor Naidoo urged the profession to “act now” to help prevent this potential global problem. He added: “Our Children’s Vision is a call to action – to come together to ensure that effective, inclusive, sustainable eye health solutions are available to every child everywhere.”

To date, a total of 34 organisations have joined the campaign, which is backed by the World Council of Optometry and the International Council of Ophthalmology.

For more information, visit www.ourchildrensvision.org

Watch Professor Naidoo speak to OT about myopia in the video below.