ORBIS Eye Health Ambassador Raymond Lam joins VIP guests to recite "The Pledge for Women's Right to See".

Thursday 8th October's World Sight Day (WSD) is a global sight saving initiative co-ordinated by the World Health Organization (WHO) and other international blindness prevention organizations. To support WSD 2009 and heighten Hongkongers' awareness of the importance of eye care, ORBIS Hong Kong held its sixth annual Pin Campaign and urged everyone to wear an ORBIS Pin throughout October to demonstrate their compassion. Further attention was generated by the Awards Ceremony at Citywalk in Tseun Wan on 30th September.

Meanwhile in India and Bangladesh, ORBIS' Flying Eye Hospital has been conducting training programs for local eye care professionals, promoting equal access to diagnosis and treatment for those in need in these countries.

The ORBIS Pin Campaign 2009 began this May and will end in October. Miss Mary Lau, ORBIS Hong Kong's Director of Development said, "Despite the ongoing economic downturn, the results of this year's campaign have been very encouraging. In all, some 24,000 donors including 440 corporations, organizations and schools helped raise around HK$2,800,000 for our worldwide sight-saving mission. We are very, very grateful for everyone's donations. Such kindness is vital in funding the eye care facilities and professional eye care training via which ORBIS is bringing hope in sight to so many preventably blind people in desperately poor countries."

Mrs. Susan Mak, JP, Deputy Secretary for Food and Health, urges the people of Hong Kong to care about their eyes. Dr. Nancy Yuen, President of the Hong Kong Ophthalmological Society, says an annual eye check is the most effective mean of prevention.

ORBIS was privileged to have Mrs. Susan Mak, JP, Deputy Secretary for Food and Health, and Dr. Nancy Yuen, President of the Hong Kong Ophthalmological Society, as its honored guests at the ceremony. During the event, both VIP guests shared details about local eye health issues and offered attendees valuable eye care tips. They also pointed out that despite Hong Kong's comparative economic maturity, common eye diseases such as cataracts, glaucoma, refractive errors and age-related eye diseases can strike anyone. As these conditions have few symptoms, an annual eye check is the most effective means of prevention.

ORBIS has been organizing its annual Pin Campaign in support of WSD every year since 2004. This year's WSD will emphasize "Gender and Health". The ultimate aim is to heighten worldwide awareness that female eye disease sufferers in poorer countries are deprived of equal access to diagnosis and treatment. Shockingly, around 66% of the world's 45,000,000 blind people are female. In developing countries where men are the main breadwinners, women enjoy only half the access to eye care as males do. By redressing this imbalance, equal access to eye care will substantially reduce Third World blindness.

To heighten awareness of this injustice, Mrs. Mak, Dr. Yuen and Miss Lau joined forces with ORBIS Eye Health Ambassador, Raymond Lam to recite "The Pledge for Women's Right to See" and encourage everyone to support ORBIS in saving the sight of blind women in developing nations.

The list of winners of this year's Pin Campaign was also announced at the ceremony. Trophies were subsequently presented to salute the corporations, organizations and donors who had contributed the most to ORBIS's worldwide blindness prevention programs through this initiative. The ceremony concluded with the VIP guests attaching ORBIS pins to a giant T-shirt, symbolically urging all corporations and individuals in Hong Kong to support WSD and fight for women's right to sight by wearing an ORBIS pin all through October.

Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) Limited has been winning the Champion of the Top Five Fundraising Organizations Award for the sixth consecutive years. VIP guests attaching ORBIS pins to a giant T-shirt to urge all corporations and individuals to support WSD by wearing an ORBIS pin all through October.

ORBIS Pin Campaign 2009 winner list

Top Five Fundraising Organizations
 
Champion: Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) Limited
1st Runner-up: Inland Revenue Department
2nd Runner-up: Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited
3rd Runner-up: NAMESON GROUP
4th Runner-up: The Nielsen Company

Top Three Organizations with the Most Participants
 
Organization with the Most Participants: Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) Limited
Organization with Second Most Participants: Inland Revenue Department
Organization with Third Most Participants: Optical 88 Ltd.

   
Participating companies and schools wore their pin with pride in October.