THIS WORLD SIGHT DAY, IT’S OKAY TO #BESHADY
285 million people are visually impaired. 80% don’t have to be. Together, we can raise awareness for visual impairment around the world by wearing sunglasses inside on WORLD SIGHT DAY.
With TOMS Eyewear, the One for One™ Company Helps Give Sight Around the World Through Prescription Eyeglasses, Cataract Surgeries and Medical Treatments.
This year, to show our support and raise awareness for WORLD SIGHT DAY we will challenge people to wear sunglasses inside on October 10th, 2013.Whether you’re at work, in bed, at a restaurant, inside a movie theatre, at the mall, in the library or anywhere your day might take you, “Be Shady” and show your support for WORLD SIGHT DAY.
World Sight Day is an annual day of awareness created to focus global attention on blindness, visual impairment and rehabilitation of the visually impaired. “Nearly every single human being can identify with not being able to see clearly, whether it’s personally or through knowing someone who has had an issue with his or her eye sight,” said Blake Mycoskie, founder of TOMS. “Realizing that so many millions of people are struggling with this issue each and every day, we feel compelled to continue to do our part to raise awareness and help those in need.”
According to WHO and VISION2020, the magnitude of visual impairment and blindness and their causes have been estimated as follows:
• About 285 million people are visually impaired worldwide.
• 39 million people are blind.
• 19 million children are visually impaired.
• About 90% of the world's visually impaired people live in developing countries.
• Globally, uncorrected refractive errors (often correctable with glasses) are the main cause of visual impairment.
• Cataracts are the leading cause of blindness.
Leading up to World Sight Day 2013, TOMS is activating both online and offline through the creation of a dedicated microsite, and will be harnessing the power of social media and numerous events. Online, TOMS supporters can go to toms.com/world-sight-day/lto learn more about this important issue and find out how they can personally participate. Visitors can also download World Sight Day toolkits that include uniquely inspiring eye charts, and are invited to utilize a new hashtag, #BESHADY, through social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
To promote this day, TOMS will team up with celebrities and our TOMS community to create collateral with people wearing sunglasses to inform and get everyone excited about the day. Collateral will encourage people to post a picture of themselves wearing sunglasses inside on social media to raise awareness for WORLD SIGHT DAY.
On October 10, 2013, let’s “Be Shady” together to raise awareness for visual impairment. Keeping the same momentum and excitement of ODWS, we will focus on World Sight Day as the day to rally together to bring awareness and ultimately an end to preventable blindness and visual impairment by wearing sunglasses inside. Our campaign will help educate the world that visual impairment is a serious problem and we can start fixing it today by purchasing TOMS Eyewear. Every eyewear purchase helps give sight to a person in need.
Since launching, TOMS (www.TOMS.com) is on track to help give sight by the end of 2013 to over 150,000 people in need in 13 countries through the purchase of TOMS Eyewear. TOMS helps give sight through sustainable eye care organizations worldwide that use TOMS’ support to provide patients with prescription eyeglasses, sight-saving surgery, and medical treatment. TOMS’ giving program is supported and administered by the company’s lead sight giving partner, Seva Foundation (www.seva.org). Based in northern California, Sevahas been implementing sustainable blindness prevention and sight restoration programs for over 30 years. Seva programs and partners have helped nearly three million people worldwide to see again.
About TOMS: In 2006, American traveler Blake Mycoskie befriended children in a village in Argentina and found they had no shoes to protect their feet. Wanting to help, he created TOMS, a company that would match every pair of shoes purchased with a pair of new shoes given to a child in need. One for One™. Last year, TOMS evolved from a shoe company into the One for One company,and is now addressing an entirely new need in addition to shoes through eyewear – helping give sight to people in need around the world.
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