“Love Your Eyes, Every Story Counts” was the theme for World Sight Day 2025. This annual event, celebrated on every second Thursday in October, always creates a huge ripple effect in the Optometry and Ophthalmology services worldwide.
Thus, come August or September, every eye health professional morphs into an avid cinematographer at work, eager to capture compelling stories with deep emotion and surgeries with vast success, against the backdrop of smiles from dedicated staff members. In the age of fast-swiping digital media and the quest for fleeting attention, it's unsurprising that some stories get unintentionally overlooked. This was ours.
Like many other eye centres, the Department of Ophthalmology UMMC decided to host an eye screening event to raise awareness about the importance of vision health in the community. Although planning began months in advance, the committee members were faced with many challenges, such as overlapping events, delays for confirmation of sponsorship, a lack of event manpower (due to concurrent postgraduate examinations), delays for approval of the event and even a miscommunication leading to a banner printing error. Morale at committee meetings seemed suboptimal as our staff were overworked with other projects and deadlines at the time.
However, despite months of swimming against the currents, the team, led by Dr Lim Yi Wen, was in high spirits on the event day. It was clear as day that talking to the community and promoting good visual hygiene were at the core of all our passions. Teamwork with an enthusiastic group, including Lions Club PJ, Lux Vision Optometry and Sentul Optical Centre, was effortless. Our sponsors outdid themselves and helped provide us with machines, eyedrops and visual aids. We even had a pickle stall to add some flavour throughout the event. Members of Masjid Ar-Rahah congregation were eager to learn more about their visual health and were incredibly welcoming to all of us. At the end of the event, we had successfully screened 85 members of the public, and the Lions Club of PJ had dispensed over 20 new prescription glasses to the needy.
We listened to 85 different stories about how and why they had come to see us, and hopefully were able to share some of our own. Stories have been a way of sharing information and saving lives for a long time, dating back to the caveman era. It’s not a flashy Instagram one on our end, but we’re grateful for the opportunity to play our part this World Sight Day.
Thank you to all the committee members for all your hours of toil and sweat.
Thank you to our collaborators and sponsors for your unwavering support.
Thank you to the community of Masjid Ar-Rahmah and Kampung Kerinchi for participating.
Written by,
Dr Sabrina Asaari
Last Update: 08/10/2025