Article sourced from RANZCO
From 1 July 2019, RANZCO’s Australian & New Zealand Eye Foundation (ANZEF) is holding its annual national eye health awareness month – JulEYE.
JulEYE has three core aims:
- to raise community awareness of eye health issues;
- to raise funding for research projects into the causes and cures of vision impairment and blindness; and
- to support international development projects whose goals are aligned with those of ANZEF.
Did you know?
- In Australia more than 453,000 people are blind or vision impaired, with the prevalence being three times more for Indigenous Australians than non-Indigenous.
- 86% of Australians say that sight is their most valued sense, with the figure increasing to 93% for those over 55 years of age. In fact, 60% of Australians say that the fear of going blind is worse than the fear of having a heart attack or losing a limb.
- Approximately 90% of blindness and vision impairment in all Australians is preventable or treatable if detected early.
- Yet 28% of Australians do not get their eyes tested regularly (every two years) and 6% have never had an eye test.
Data sourced from Vision 2020 Australia facts sheets – Oct 2013 and Oct 2016.
During JulEye, RANZCO are raising awareness of the important role that research, education and outreach play in helping to end preventable blindness.
RANZCO are asking for your support to help us make this happen. To find out more or to make a donation to ANZEF visit https://ranzco.edu/home/foundation/juleye/.