A child eye protection activity took place on Oct 24 in Beijing to kick off this year’s action to help children build good habits of using eyes and learning knowledge to protect eyes.

Held by the China Children and Teenagers’ Fund (CCTF) and Kabrita company,  the 2017 Eye Protection Action, part of children health improvement promotion program, aimed to protect children from short-sightedness and enable them to understand the correct way to use eyes through interactive courses and community activities.

At the activity, professional doctors explained the common eye diseases with children, the importance of having regular eye check, and the nutrients required for visual development of children.

Children are painting during the activity.

We will team up with enterprises to carry out various activities, such as sending pamphlets, holding community activities, and opening courses in ten cities of China during this year’s event, encouraging both parents and children to know more about how to protect eyes, said Liu Peng, vice-director of the Project Cooperation Department of the CCTF.

In recent years, the incidence of myopia in China has been on the rise, and juvenile myopia tends to younger age. The 2015 "Visual Health National Report" showed that in 2012 among China's population over the age of 5, the number of patients with myopia and hyperopia was about 500 million, and that number of patients with myopia around 450 million. If there was no effective policy intervention, by 2020, myopia morbidity of China's population over the age of 5 would be expected to increase to 50.86 percent - 51.36 percent, with number of patients reaching 704 million - 7.11 billion.