LONDON—In what is scheduled to be the biggest global public engagement campaign on eye health and anticipating the most successful World Sight Day on Oct.14 this year, the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness is calling on everyone to focus on their eye health in the global campaign, #LoveYourEyes. In the days leading up to World Sight Day, IAPB and its World Sight Day global partners have been campaigning to get over one million eye tests pledged and has asked individuals, eyecare professionals, hospitals, NGOs and businesses to get involved because everyone counts. Anyone can get involved and pledge their tests online at at IAPB's site here.

As part of the #LoveYourEyes campaign on World Sight Day itself, IAPB is bringing together partner organizations from New Zealand to New York, from Togo to Tanzania, for the Everyone Counts Global Challenge. The idea is to unite the world, by bringing people together to have their eyes tested in schools, streets, prisons or workplaces.
 
Peter Holland, CEO of IAPB, said, “This year’s World Sight Day and our Love Your Eyes campaign is ambitious and unparalleled. We have been delighted by the response and encourage everyone to get involved—from pledging your own site test, to having the vision of your workforce checked. There is space for everyone to get involved and Love Your Eyes.”

“This year we really embodied the meaning of “Everyone Counts” and it is thanks to every test pledged, every screening held, and every social media message sent that we were able to reach more people than ever before.”

IAPB is the overarching alliance for the global eyecare sector with 150 members worldwide drawn from NGOs and civil society, corporate organizations, professional bodies and research and eyecare institutions. 
 
More information about this year’s World Sight Day, including toolkits, logos and social media assets are available on the IAPB website.
 
As VMAIL has reported, the annual IAPB World Sight Day Photo Competition is also taking place as part of the Love Your Eyes’ campaign. Participants are encouraged to send in their images, before Oct. 18, 2021, that best represent one of four categories of competition; Love Your Eyes, Love Hope, Love Health for All and Everyone Counts. Submissions can be made here at photocomp.iapb.org.