Greenpeace Leader Addresses World Congress on Refractive Error in Durban
Executive Director of Greenpeace International, Dr Kumi Naidoo, will lead a panel
discussion on the Opening Day of the second World Congress on Refractive Error
(WCRE) in Durban, South Africa, on 20 September 2010.
The panel discussion will set the stage for the Congress theme, Vision Correction:
Broadening the Development Agenda. The panel of prominent development and
health care leaders will set the stage for the congress which looks at uncorrected
refractive error, vision impairment and blindness and the global need for service
development.
The Opening Day Panel will focus on the relationship between poverty, protection of
the environment and sustainable healthcare initiatives during a question and answer
session.
Dr Naidoo first came to prominence as an activist in South Africa where he
championed reform of wide spread injustice and violation of civil liberties. For ten
years he was the General Secretary of CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen
Participation.
He is a founder and co-chair of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP) and
through his current leadership of Greenpeace. The GCAP is a coalition that applies
public pressure on world leaders to fulfil promises on aid, trade, debt, climate change
and gender equality.
Speaking on his civil contributions Dr Naidoo commented in 2009, "History teaches
us that real change only comes when good men and women are prepared to put
their lives and personal safety on the line to advance the cause of justice, equity and
peace."
WCRE is a major global meeting centered on efforts to eliminate refractive error, a
condition that results in more than 670 million people being blind or vision impaired.
A major challenge facing the blindness prevention community is the integration of
eye care into the development agenda. The world congress will address the challenge
by bringing together prominent development and health care leaders to create a
response for the need for refractive error correction within a sustainable
development context.
The theme of the world congress is Vision Correction: Broadening the Development
Agenda. To register and find out more, access WCRE via:
www.icee.org