June 15, 2020
SAN RAMON, Calif. —As pediatric myopia increases globally in prevalence and severity1, CooperVision remains committed to supporting programs, such as Our Children’s Vision implemented by the Brien Holden Foundation, that prioritize children’s eye health. Over the last three years, CooperVision has donated a percentage of its MiSight 1 day contact lens sales to the program. This continued support alongside others has helped Our Children’s Vision meet and exceed significant milestones over the past year.
In its recently released Annual Impact Report, Our Children’s Vision outlined recent achievements. The program:
- Provided vision services such as screenings and referrals to 5,158,556 children in total – 2.1 million more children than its annual target.
- Gave low cost or free spectacles or low vision devices to 468,978 children – 68,000 more than its annual target.
- Delivered specialty optometrist training to 1,138 students and other supporting staff in countries where they have emerging optometry school residents.
- Finalized the Child Eye Health Teacher Training Manual to inform partners and supporting staff engaged in delivery of services to children.
- Established child eye health working groups in Australia and Vietnam.
- Advocated for policy change to include school eye health in the national health plan of targeted countries, including Cambodia.
“From the newly issued report, it’s clear that Our Children’s Vision is reaching more children and providing greater access to eye health services in underserved communities than ever before,” said James Gardner, Vice President, Global Myopia Management, CooperVision. “We are proud of their achievements, made possible in part through our financial assistance from MiSight® 1 day contact lens sales. We look forward to continuing to support the program as we all band together to help manage the myopia public health epidemic.”
CooperVision has contributed more than $300,000 from its global MiSight sales to Our Children’s Vision to date.
1 Holden et al, – Global Prevalence of myopia and high myopia and temporal trends from 2000 through 2050. Ophthalmology 2016. 123(5):1036-1042
