World Sight Day: Eliminating treatable blindness around the world

It’s easy to dwell on the challenges that we face in eliminating preventable and treatable blindness around the world.

We know that more than 285 million people are blind or vision impaired and some of our closest neighbours in the Asia Pacific region are among those living with needless blindness every day. We have all seen the pictures which show that blindness and poverty are closely related.

But on World Sight Day, when we turn our attention to eye health and how blindness can be prevented, it’s also worth noting the positive impact that Australian foreign aid and expertise is having in restoring sight and enhancing the capacity of many developing countries to help them look after their own health needs in years to come.