Georgia Vision 2020, a coalition of Georgia nonprofits dedicated to vision health, will participate in the 2021 World Sight Day, an annual awareness celebration falling on Thursday, October 14.

Georgia Vision 2020 is a network of leading vision service providers collaborating to reach hundreds of children and adults across the state to prevent visual impairment and helping Georgians achieve their full visual potential through health promotions, education, service delivery, and advocacy. Together we provide Georgians access to preventative care, services for low vision, sight-saving surgeries, access to optometrist and ophthalmologists and more.

On Sept. 13 coalition members will launch a series of social media messages encouraging Georgians to “Love Your Eyes.” The importance of vision health cannot be overstated. It is an important indicator of overall general health, and many eye diseases are initially silent and symptomless. All people—whether they wear glasses or not—should have an annual eye exam, which is why this year’s World Sight Day campaign is asking everyone to make a pledge to love their eyes by having an eye exam.

For the last year, we’ve all been staring at screens—television, computer, and phone—putting a serious strain on our eyes. At the same time, we’ve put off making non-emergency doctors’ visits. It is easy to take sight for granted, but eye health impacts education, employment, quality of life, economic opportunity, and so many other goals. Globally, vision is an important driver of sustainable development. 

This World Sight Day we call on organizations and the public to come together to encourage governments, corporations, institutions and individuals to actively support universal access to eye healthcare.

Our vision is a world in which no Georgian is needlessly blind or visually impaired and where those with unavoidable vision loss can achieve their full potential through universal access to comprehensive eye care services.

In Georgia, 31,000 people are blind, 64,500 people are visually impaired and 1,900,000 are in need of glasses or cataract surgery. We invite the community to be a partner! Everyone has the opportunity to be a part of ensuring all Georgians have access to vision care. People can support a healthy and thriving Georgia by donating to the Center for the Visually Impaired or any of the Georgia Vision network members. To learn more and get involved, visit https://gavision2020.org/ourpartners/.