AFRO-NETS> World Sight Day on 11 October 2001

["Dr. Uzodinma A. Adirieje" <afrepton@hotmail.com>]

World Sight Day on 11 October 2001
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Dear Colleagues,

The World Sight Day 2001 will take place on Thursday 11 October and 
will focus attention on the problem of global blindness. It is co-
ordinated by VISION 2020- a global coalition of 26 international or-
ganizations including the World Health Organisation, which aims to 
eliminate avoidable blindness by the year 2020 - of which OPTONET In-
ternational is a supporting member.

Last year high profile events involving Health Ministers, Prime Min-
isters and Presidents were held in over 30 countries worldwide to ob-
serve World Sight Day.

This year's World Sight Day aims to expand on the success of last 
year and our goal is to raise public awareness of blindness as a ma-
jor international public health issue and frame eye care as a basic 
human right, because every 5 seconds a person in our world goes blind 
and a child goes blind every minute.

The World Sight Day also aims to raise awareness that 80 percent of 
blindness could be prevented or cured through cost-effective means. 
VISION 2020 is urging governments, corporations and other funding 
sources to invest in tackling a problem that has reached crisis lev-
els and causes an estimated economic burden of US$25 billion a year.

The campaign activity will involve blindfolding famous landmarks in 
capital cities around the world, on the day - if only for a matter of 
minutes - for a photo opportunity to launch the campaign, and to draw 
attention to this major global problem.

We invite you to participate, and actively too.

For further information please visit:
http://www.v2020.org 

or contact:

OPTONET International
56 Adetola Street
Aguda-Surulere, Lagos, Nigeria
P.O. Box 4127
Oshodi, Lagos, Nigeria
Tel: +234-90-414811
Fax: +234-1-4520333
mailto:afrepton@hotmail.com
mailto:afrepton@yahoo.com

Sincerely,

Dr. Uzodinma A. Adirieje
Executive Director
Optonet Int'l
mailto:afrepton@hotmail.com

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