This World Sight Day, our colours are lighting up skylines in communities across Canada, from Calgary to Winnipeg and from Guelph to Toronto. We’ll be sharing photos on our website and social media, so everyone can see them.  

If you live in Calgary, where we have been based for more than six decades, look up, way up, at the Calgary Tower after dark on October 9. To help raise awareness of the importance of eye health, the Calgary Tower will shine in Operation Eyesight’s blue and orange.

If you live in Toronto, you can see the CN Tower shining in blue and orange (and yellow, for another eye-related organization that is also marketing World Sight Day). Wherever you live in Canada, urban, rural or remote, you can view the CN Tower lighting through the Tower’s webcam here. Catch the light show at the top of every hour and at every half hour.

Guelph’s Market Square lit up in blue and orange overnight on October 8 to 9.

The Winnipeg Esplanade Riel Bridge and city sign will be lit up on October 11 for World Sight Day as well as World Blindness Awareness month (October).

Why we’re raising awareness of eye health in Canada on World Sight Day

As of 2019, in Canada, 1.2 million people experience vision loss, which is 3.2 per cent of the population, and another estimated eight million people – 19 per cent – have eye conditions that could lead to blindness.

Fortunately, 75 per cent of vision loss in Canada is avoidable

Avoidable vision loss can be prevented or treated when detected and addressed early. This is best done through regular eye exams; however, just 51 per cent of people in Canada are aware of how often to get an exam. Vision loss impacts people of all ages and touches all aspects of life including:

• education (students with uncorrected refractive error learn 50 per cent less than peers);
• employment (vision loss can lead to a 30 per cent reduction in employment); and
• Canada’s economy – in 2019 alone the estimated cost of vision loss was nearly 33 billion dollars according to The Cost of Vision Loss and Blindness in Canada report.

World Sight Day is in focus in Canada this year with the passing of the National Strategy for Eye Care Act  in November 2024.

Kris Kelm, our Global Director – International Programs and Chair of the Canadian Eye Health Coalition, says, “Canada has made eye health a national priority with the passage of the National Strategy for Eye Care Act. We’re hard at work with like-minded organizations and communities, including Indigenous communities, to help shape the framework for an eye health care system that will serve all Canadians, from Inuvik to Iqaluit, and from Victoria to St. John’s – and every urban, rural and remote community in between. We are proud to bring more than 60 years of experience – earned building eye health care systems with partners in Africa and South Asia – to the table, and we feel that there is a lot for our Canadian policy to learn from international experience.”

Our President & CEO Kashinath Bhoosnurmath says, “Together, we can build an eye health care system in Canada that improves quality of life for us all, personally and for our family, friends, colleagues and neighbours. Together, we can eliminate avoidable vision loss in Canada to expand our collective opportunities – and be a shining inspiration for others.”

Eyesight on the international stage

On September 23, 2025, the UN Friends of Vision, collaborating with the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) which facilitates World Sight Day worldwide, presented the very first The Value of Vision: The Investment Case for Eye Health to the United Nations General Assembly in New York. The case will help inform international frameworks and lay a path for countries to build eye health care systems.

World Sight Day 2025: A list of Operation Eyesight activities in Canada

• Co-hosting a webinar for decision makers called The Future in Focus: Eye Health in Canada and Beyond. The webinar, a collaboration between Operation Eyesight, Seva Canada and Orbis Canada, will focus on the rising demand for eye health care nationally and globally, on Thursday, October 9.
• Helping kids love their eyes: We’re encouraging parents, guardians and teachers to download resources for educating children (and themselves) about eye health: operationeyesight.com/free-resources-for-parents

We will be sharing our activities on social media and our website. Learn more or donate in honour of World Sight Day at operationeyesight.com/worldsightday.

Happy World Sight Day! And thank you to our staff, donors and partners around the world for your steadfast dedication to our mission to prevent blindness and restore sight – For All The World To See!

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But here’s the thing: as much as we appreciate your thoughtfulness, we no longer take used eyeglasses. In fact, we stopped collecting eyeglasses back in 2003.

Here’s why…

Everyone’s eyesight is different. For a pair of eyeglasses to be useful, they need to be screened and fitted for someone through a professional eye exam. To make use of an existing pair, we’d need to find someone with that exact prescription.

It can be a difficult and time-consuming process to match a person’s prescription to a used pair of eyeglasses. In fact, a 2012 study¹ found that matching people with used glasses can cost up to twice as much as supplying them with new ones. And even then,it’s not always an exact match. That’s why we provide people with a new pair of eyeglasses, tailored exactly to their needs.

However, people continue mailing used eyeglasses to us, showing up with boxes full of them, or leaving a bag of them on our doorstep. Unfortunately, we can’t put them to use. But don’t worry! There are other ways you can make a difference and help those who need a brand-new pair of eyeglasses.

How you can help

A simple eye exam and a pair of prescription eyeglasses can transform a person’s life. It can help someone get back to work, keep a child in school and restore independence to a senior citizen.

In partnership with local hospitals and governments, we establish vision centres and eye units in communities in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. These facilities are community hubs where people can go for an eye exam and be fitted for a pair of custom eyeglasses.

Most of the eyeglasses we provide to patients are funded by the generosity of donors like you.  As little as $20 dollars can provide a pair of life-changing eyeglasses. Please consider making a small donation to help bring someone’s future into focus with a new pair of eyeglasses. Thank you for your support!

1. https://journals.lww.com/optvissci/Fulltext/2012/03000/Real_Cost_of_Recycled_Spectacles.9.aspx ↩︎

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What is Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and why is it important? Last month at the United Nations General Assembly, world leaders adopted the goal of working together to achieve UHC by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Currently, more than half of the world’s population lacks access to essential health services. Those living in poverty are even more disadvantaged by having to pay for these services, pushing them even further into the cycle of poverty. In a world with UHC, every woman, girl, man and boy would have access to essential health services without facing a financial burden or exclusion.

At the Devex UHC Pavilion, I had the opportunity to hear from global leaders who discussed these challenges and shared insights about how we can work towards achieving the goal of UHC. Many ideas were shared, and it is clear UHC will not be achieved alone; we need to build collaborative, multi-sector partnerships that bring together a range of perspectives and expertise. Our beneficiaries must be at the centre of our solutions; a human-centred approach is essential to ensure we are fully meeting the needs of the end user. Further, we need to build scalable and sustainable models that can attract private sector investment to our solutions. Most importantly, through all of this we need to ensure we leave no one behind – that means developing innovative models to reach the most underserved and marginalized communities.

Uncorrected poor vision is the world’s largest unaddressed disability, with one in three people being affected – 89 percent of which live in developing countries (Essilor). Even more alarming, this costs our global economy US$272 billion in lost productivity every single year (Essilor).

Poor vision is a public health crisis, and it is both a cause and consequence of poverty. Those who live in poverty are more susceptible to vision impairment because of lack of access to primary health services, poor hygiene and sanitary conditions, and cultural stigmas around vision correction. When a person living in poverty can properly see, they become an active, engaged member of their community, and they no longer face the burden of being shamed for their disability.

An estimated US$14 billion is required to create a world free from uncorrected refractive errors (Essilor). This sounds like a lot, but it is achievable – with commitment and action from governments, the private sector, civil society organizations and global citizens like you.

Together, we can improve the lives of millions of people by preventing blindness and restoring sight. A simple pair of eyeglasses enables individuals to return to work, provides children with the opportunity to attend and succeed at school, and increases one’s safety and well-being.

We partner with local hospitals and governments to provide quality eye care services to everyone – regardless of gender, age or ability to pay. We work to address the root causes of avoidable blindness and remove barriers to access for women and men alike. Our innovative community outreach model trains community health workers – typically women who live and work in our target communities – to conduct door-to-door eye screenings and educate families about eye health and general health topics such as prenatal care, nutrition and immunization.

Enabling individuals to reach their full potential benefits us all. We have made significant strides in addressing poor vision, but there is still much work to be done. We have an opportunity to collectively address one of the world’s largest public health challenges and improve the lives of millions while doing so.

This World Sight Day, October 10, I invite you to make a donation and join us as we transform lives – For All The World To See.

The post Universal Health Coverage: A radical idea and a basic human right appeared first on Operation Eyesight.