United Nations Commits to Eye Care for All by 2030
The United Nations (UN) General Assembly has committed the international community to eye health for all by the year 2030. More than 1 billion people globally suffer preventable sight loss. The majority of those people live in developing countries like Guatemala.
The “Vision for Everyone: Accelerating Action to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals” resolution was passed unanimously by all 193 UN Member States. It is the first agreement designed to tackle preventable sight loss [ever] to be adopted by the UN, enshrining eye health as part of the UN’s sustainable development goals and calling for new eye care targets.
The resolution asks international financial institutions, along with institutional and individual donors, to provide financial support to developing countries in tackling preventable sight loss.
It also tasks the UN to incorporate eye health into its work through Unicef and UN-Women.
“If we are to meet the Sustainable Development Goals on gender equality, then we must acknowledge that a lack of access to eye care has a disproportionate impact on women and girls,” noted UN Ambassador Geraldine Byrne Nason, Permanent Representative of Ireland, UN Security Council member, and co-chair of the UN Friends of Vision group. “This can have devastating consequences on girls’ education, not to mention the participation of women in the workforce, poverty, child marriage, and the role of women in safeguarding the health and education of their own children.”
“An eye test for a child can be the difference between inclusion and exclusion. A pair of prescription glasses, the difference between access to information and seeking a livelihood and not. Corrective eye treatment, the difference between improved sight and total loss of sight,” added UN Ambassador Aubrey Webson, Permanent Representative of Antigua and Barbuda, and founding co-chair of the UN Friends of Vision group.
Our 10-year Visualiza National Eye Care Plan to expand self-sustaining eye care nationwide is the cure for treatable blindness in Guatemala!
Now is the time to offer your financial support!
Source: Vision for the Poor partner, IAPB (International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness)
https://www.iapb.org/news/un-resolution-vision/