Sight for Kids, now in its tenth year, has provided free vision screening for 16 million children in Asia. The program – a partnership between Johnson & Johnson Vision Care and the Lions Clubs International Foundation (LCIF) has screened children in China, India, Korea, Malaysia, Nepal, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
To mark World Sight Day, Sight For Kids screened hundreds of children at a school in Bangkok on 11 October. This year the group aims to screen one million children.
“Uncorrected refractive errors, which are easily corrected, are responsible for nearly half of all global vision impairment,” said Wing-Kun Tam, Chairperson of LCIF.
“We’re very proud of all we’ve accomplished together through Sight for Kids, one of our longest-running and widest reaching corporate partnerships. It shows what’s possible when dedicated partners unite in service to eye care.”
Gaining access to an eye screening early in life is critical since many vision-related issues can be addressed through preventative care.
In addition to screening for vision, to date:
- Nearly 600,000 children have been referred to physicians for further evaluation;
- More than 163,000 children have received glasses; and
- More than 76,000 children have been treated for various eye conditions.1
“Gaining access to an eye screening early in life is critical since many vision-related issues can be addressed through preventative care,” said Thibaut Mongon, President, Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, Asia Pacific. “We are proud to help lift the barrier to vision screening for children in need and hope it will have a life-long impact for many of them.”
Sight for Kids was established in 2002 to reduce visual impairment and disability in Asia through volunteer-directed vision screenings involving ministries of health, school districts, eye care professionals and hospitals along with Lions Club International volunteers and JJVC employees.
For more details about the Sight for Kids World Sight Day event, please visit www.lcif.org/sfk
