They include a meeting with the participation of delegates involved innational blindness prevention work, a photo exhibition and a screeningof a cartoon film on eye diseases for school children. Children fromNguyen Dinh Chieu High School will receive gifts from the organisingboard.
In response to the day, the Hanoi Eye Hospitalwill offer free eye check-ups for children aged below 15 and freesurgery for all visually-impaired children in the capital city from Oct.10-14.
The HITEC eye hospital will also offer freecheck-ups and consultancy on eye diseases for the elderly aged over 60,to mark its first anniversary.
Initiated by theWorld Health Organisation and the International Agency for Prevention ofBlindness, World Sight Day falls on the second Thursday of Octoberevery year and aims to focus global attention on blindness and visualimpairment while eradicating avoidable blindness all over the world.
This is the ninth year in which the day will be observed in Vietnam.
At present, there are almost 314 million blind and visually impairedpeople worldwide, of whom almost 2 million are from Vietnam. In Vietnam,nearly 23,000 children are blind in both eyes and this number keepsgrowing.
Statistics from the Hanoi Eye Hospitalshowed that there are 32,000 blind people in Hanoi, which accounts for0.5 percent of the capital city’s population./.