World Sight Day Date in the current year: October 10, 2024

In 1998, Lion Clubs International launched Lions World Sight Day to draw attention to the plight of sight loss in the countries of the third world. In 2000, the IAPB supported the initiative and integrated World Sight Day into its program VISION 2020. World Sight Day has been celebrated on the second Thursday of October ever since. The IAPB organizes it in cooperation with WHO (World Health Organization).

World Sight Day aims at focusing global attention on blindness and vision impairment as major international public health issues. Events and activities held on the occasion focus on educating people about blindness prevention programs and generating support for VISION 2020.

According to statistics, approximately 39 million people worldwide are blind, and 90% of them live in low-income countries. Another 246 million are visually impaired. 80% of visual impairment can be treated and/or prevented. VISION 2020 and World Sight Day were created to convey this information and encourage people worldwide to support blindness and visual impairment prevention strategies.