By Jenilyn Alexia
Published in The Malay Mail, March 2013
THERE’S a saying that eyes are the windows to a person’s soul, and that is why the sense of sight is very important to us. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), 75 per cent of blindness and visual impairmentrelated conditions usually occurs in low income communities across the globe. The high rate of blindness and visual impairment in such communities is due primarily to five preventable and treatable conditions, the list including cataracts, refractive errors and low vision, trachoma and onchocerciasis.
"One of the things that we're faced with is a challenge of the attitude of people. Before I lost my sight, I took my eyesight for granted and didn't think that my eyesight would give me problems. I checked but did not go to proper check-ups."
"Eye health has always been taken for granted, although we all depend on our eyesight. This especially so for the younger generation who look at screens a lot, so there's how DiD came about."
