On this year’s World Sight Day, which is designated to be on the second Thursday of every October, Orbis advocated the importance of eye health and explained “The Silent Thief of Sight” – glaucoma, Orbis Macau Executive Committee Chairperson Isabel da Silva said yesterday.
Silva made the remarks during yesterday’s launch ceremony of Orbis Macau’s Action for Sight Campaign 2020 and the first Action for Sight Exhibition at the Macau Science Centre in Nape, which is on for a month.
Silva said that this year’s theme is titled “Window of Hope”, which is an analogy to highlight that every single donor and supporter are the windows of hope for the millions of visually impaired people around the world and to encourage the community to join Orbis and open more windows of hope for sight.
During the ceremony, Kiang Wu Hospital’s Ophthalmologist Department representative Dr Hong Sin U said that glaucoma is known as the “silent thief of sight” because its symptoms are not obvious and many people tend to overlook them until it reaches a more advanced stage. She stressed that regular eye examinations can often help control and manage glaucoma.
According to an Orbis statement that was given out during yesterday’s launch ceremony, the charity has been a pioneer in the prevention and treatment of avoidable blindness for nearly four decades. The statement pointed out that Orbis operates the world’s only Flying Eye Hospital, which has a fully accredited ophthalmic teaching hospital on board a MD-10 aircraft, and Cybersight, which is an award-winning telemedicine platform
For more information about Action for Sight 2020 or Orbis sight-saving missions, visit Orbis Macau’s website at www.orbis.org/mo-afs-en or call 28399787.
The chairperson of the Executive Committee of Orbis Macau, Isabel da Silva, (centre) and Kiang Wu Hospital’s Ophthalmologist Department representative Dr Hong Sin U (right) pose during yesterday’s launch ceremony for the 2020 edition of the Action for Sight campaign of Orbis Macau and the First Action for Sight Exhibition at the Macau Science Centre (MSC) in Nape.
Visitors walk around the First Action for Sight Exhibition, which goes on until next month, at the Macau Science Centre yesterday. Photos: Prisca Tang
