Lions World Sight Day

Focusing Attention on Preventing Blindness and Improving Sight

For more than 11 years, Lions World Sight Day, held annually in October, has focused attention on eliminating preventable blindness and improving sight. On World Sight Day, Lions clubs around the world conduct special sight-related projects including:

• Collecting eyeglasses

• Conducting vision and diabetes screenings

• Planning educational programs to inform their communities about the importance of eye health – and diseases such as diabetes that can impair sight

International World Sight Day Event

Lions Clubs International also sponsors an annual international event on World Sight Day. In 2009, Lions observed international World Sight Day in the Czech Republic. President Eberhard J. Wirfs presided over the events, which included:

• Lions members from the Czech Republic screened the eyes of 125 kindergartners in two schools in Prague. Lions partnered with Prima Visuz and local ophthalmologists to provide the free screenings through a year-long program. Prima Vizuz is a non-government, non-profit organization that provides free vision testing for preschool-aged children in the Czech Republic.

• Lions and opthalmologists conducted a community education seminar on the importance of eye health at the Lions International Educational Centre of Ophthalmology (LIECO) in the teaching hospital at Kralovské Vinohrady Medical Faculty of the Charles University.