World Sight Day 2011 - October 13, 2011

Cost-Effectiveness of Blindness Prevention Activities

Join the International Eye Foundation on Thursday, October 13, 2011 from 12 noon-1:15pm for a Capitol Hill briefing in the House Rayburn Building B-340. Held on World Sight Day, the event will discuss groundbreaking, cost-effective health interventions that have prevented vision loss, such as vitamin A supplementation and cataract surgery. Featured speakers are:

· Kevin Frick, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Health Policy and Management, Center for Global Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

· Louis Pizzarello, M.D., Columbia University, IAPB, Vision 2020/USA (host)

International Eye Foundation is a founding member of Vision2020/USA and is a co-sponsor for the World Sight Day briefing.

To attend, RSVP your attendance to Dina Beaumont at dinabeau@aol.com or (202)530-4672.

World Sight Day is an international day of awareness held annually on the second Thursday of October to focus attention on the global issue of avoidable blindness and visual impairment.

Gender and Eye Health

Leading US-based eye care NGOs held a briefing, “Seeing Women: Taking on Gender Inequities in Global Blindness Prevention,” at the National Press Club in Washington, DC on April 30, 2009 exploring links between gender and blindness, poverty, disability and education. NGOs and groups advancing the rights of women presented case studies and effective strategies that work in improving access to eye care services for women and girls

“Globally, women bear a greater burden of blindness than men,” said Victoria Sheffield, President, International Eye Foundation. “Clear evidence from developing countries shows that women receive fewer eye care services in part because eye care programs are not tailored to meet the needs of women and second, cultural and social barriers exist at the community level.”