The annual World Sight Day is approaching and in order to remind people of the importance of protecting and restoring vision, global sight-saving organisation Orbis is asking people to look up and look into the distance as a simple thing to do to relax eyes strained from spending too much time looking too closely at their smartphones and computers.
World Sight Day takes place on October 12 this year and, as every year, non-profit and non-governmental organisation Orbis celebrates it with an “Action For Sight” campaign.
As this year’s theme is “View and feel the world in a foot’s hop”, the local Orbis branch wants to raise public awareness of how distance connects to eye health and Orbis’ sight-saving missions around the world.Look far
Prolonged close work like reading, using computers and smartphones causes strain on the focusing eye muscle (ciliary muscle).
Our ciliary muscles contract and our lens become thick when we look at things too close to the eyes.
But after long-term contraction, the ciliary muscles may not get proper rest by just closing the eyes so, instead, we need to look into the distance because that’s when the ciliary muscles are relaxed and the lens becomes flat.
In addition, when the ciliary muscles tighten and concentrate on a visually intense task for a long period, vision will get worse over time. If we don’t give the eyes a rest, it would cause refractive errors including myopia (near-sightedness), hyperopia (farsightedness) and astigmatism.
There are different ways to rest your eyes, such as looking into the distance from time to time while binge-watching your favourite TV drama, go hiking because you’ll always be looking ahead, play badminton or football as your eyes will be watching the movement of the shuttlecock or ball.
According to the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB), there are 253 million visually impaired people and 1.1 billion people with near-vision impairment. Some 89 percent of visually impaired people live in low and middle-income countries, and Orbis has been going to 92 countries to help restore these people’s eyesight.
Ethiopia, known for its coffee, is home to four million people who are blind or visually impaired, and Orbis’ footprint there includes an eye health club, clean water, and latrine projects to prevent trachoma, an infectious disease of the eyelid caused by the bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis.
Another place Orbis supports is Cameroon. While its football always make headlines, nearly a quarter of a million people in Cameroon suffer from blindness. Orbis has been helping people in the west African country by sending its Flying Eye Hospital there to train eye care professionals, and they will be flying there again next month.
Famous for its World Heritage Machu Picchu, Peru is where more than three-quarters of a million people are visually impaired and another are 115,000 blind. Orbis has been there to screen patients and provide them with treatment to restore their sight.
All these types of work require human resources and funding, and donations help Orbis continue to fight against avoidable blindness.
For donations made now and before November 30 to this year’s “Action for Sight” campaign, donors will receive an Orbis Eye Care Pack. For more information, please visit orbis.org/mo-afs
