News Releases

UWI celebrates World Sight Day

For Release Upon Receipt - September 30, 2011

St. Augustine


The UWI Faculty of Science and Agriculture and Faculty of Medical Sciences will celebrate World Sight Day over two days, October 5th and 6th 2011, with three separate events surrounding the theme, “Seeing through Learning, Learning through Seeing”. The events include a World Sight Day Prevention of Blindness Workshop, a World Sight Day Prevention Student Exposition and a World Sight Day Prevention Public Lecture.

The Workshop, which is an invitation-only event, will take place on October 5th at the Mt. Hope Faculty Board Room from 9:00am to 4:30pm. The event is a collaborative effort between the NGOs working in blindness prevention and The UWI. The key speaker at the event will be The Honourable Dr. Fuad Khan, Minister of Health.  Specially invited guests include Dr. Juan Carlos Silva, Regional Eye Care Director for PAHO; Dr. Van Lansingh, Regional Director for Vision 2010, PAHO; and Mr. Max Bruss, Vice President of Operations, VOSH SE (Volunteer Optometry Services to humanity, South East).

The Student Exposition and Public Lecture both take place on October 6th and are open to the public. The exposition will take place from noon to 3:00pm at the Humanities Undercroft on the St. Augustine Campus, while the Public Lecture will run from 4:30pm to 7:00pm at Amphitheatre B on the Mt. Hope Campus. The speakers at these events will be Dr. Juan Carlos Silva, Regional Eye Care Director for PAHO;  Dr. Van Lansingh, Regional Director for Vision 2010; PAHO and Mr. Max Bruss, Vice President of Operations, VOSH SE.  Representatives from the Ministry of Health and Ophthalmology and Optometry Associations will also be in attendance. Attendees at the exposition will have the opportunity to do vision screenings at the event.

For further information on the UWI World Sight Day events, please contact Dr. Sandra Wang-Harris at sandra.wang-harris@sta.uwi.edu and Dr. Subash Sharma at subash.sharma@sta.uwi.edu or (868) 662-2002 ext. 82267.

For the latest UWI News, click http://sta.uwi.edu/news.

 

About UWI

Over the last six decades, The University of the West Indies (UWI) has evolved from a fledgling college in Jamaica with 33 students to a full-fledged University with over 40,000 students. Today, UWI is the largest and most longstanding higher education provider in the English-speaking Caribbean, with main campuses in Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, and Centres in Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, The Bahamas, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St Christopher (St Kitts) & Nevis, St Lucia, and St Vincent & the Grenadines. UWI recently launched its Open Campus, a virtual campus with over 50 physical site locations across the region, serving over 20 countries in the English-speaking Caribbean. UWI is an international university with faculty and students from over 40 countries and collaborative links with over 60 universities around the world. Through its seven Faculties, UWI offers undergraduate and postgraduate degree options in Engineering, Humanities & Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Pure & Applied Sciences, Science and Agriculture, and Social Sciences.

(Please note that the registered name of the university is The University of the West Indies, inclusive of the “The”, hence The UWI.)

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