Together with the Lions Club International Foundation, Johnson & Johnson Vision worked to establish Sight for Kids – the largest school-based vision program in the world. Sight for Kids mobilizes eye care professionals and volunteers to conduct vision screenings in low-income schools, and provide teachers with eye health training. To date, 150,000 Sight for Kids-trained teachers have screened more than 24 million children for visual impairment, and provided free vision correction services to more than 500,000 children around the world.
The Campaign recently expanded the Sight for Kids program into Beijing, China with a commitment to provide vision screening to more than 3 million children over the next five years and help 300,000 children receive critical vision correction.
According to the statistics of the World Health Organization, about 500,000 children worldwide are blind every year. More than half of the children with visual impairment can be treated with early intervention. In China, the prevalence of myopia among the 6-year-old and over has increased at the rate of about 10% every year. Myopia, or nearsightedness, is a progressive visual disorder that results in poor distance vision. More than 10% of myopic children will develop into high myopia and hold a higher risk of suffering from severe ophthalmic complications.
“To engage the digitally-driven population in China, this purpose marketing campaign leverages the popular WeChat platform,” said Kelly Gottfried, Vice President of Global Marketing, Johnson & Johnson Vision. “Consumers can play a game that is co-created with Tencent—China’s web giant and maker of two of the biggest games in the world, Clash of Clans and Clash Royale—to learn more about myopia management and Sight for Kids. They are encouraged to share with their social network to spread the message. In just two days, more than 1.7 million consumers in China answered the call which translates to 1.7 million more children screened in China on behalf of Johnson & Johnson Vision.”
Myopia is the leading cause of vision impairment today and is associated with blindness, increased risk of cataracts, glaucoma and retinal degeneration. Its prevalence is projected to skyrocket globally, and its impact in Asia will be crippling if left unchecked.
