Theme: Fighting Vision Impairment in Later Life 

This year HISAN and Rainbow school for the Blind made arrangements to mark the World Sight Day on 9th October and White Cane day on 15th October at Merka, Somalia. For world sight day, the organizing committee made arrangement to host the function at IDDA hall in Merka town, while the white cane day was commemorated at Merka Beach. Several guests were invited for world sight day with several organizations working in Health sector as well as WHO joined hands with HISAN and Rainbow school for the Blind in making the day a success. Among the invited guest included the village elders, community leaders, local government officials and WHO representatives in Merka.

On the material day the public had an opportunity to receive teachings on causes and prevention of Blindness specially in the ageing eye as well as causes and prevention of Blindness in childhood. These teaching on the causes of blindness were given by Dr Ahmed and Dr. Sheikh Hassan both of WHO, Merka and Mogadishu, Somalia office. The same message was emphasized through songs, poems and drama by students from Rainbow School for the Blind, while Mr. Abdikadir the chairperson of Somali association for the blind gave a personal testimony on his life as a blind person and hence cautioned the public on the need to protect their eyesight and also to take preventive measures  o protect the eye sight of the young ones.
But the most moving speech was that of Mr. Ahmed Ali the father of a young girl named Khadija Ahmed. He narrated how his child lost sight due to cataract and how he was a worried parent not knowing what to do for his daughter, but lucky enough he met with Rainbow School for the Blind teachers who encouraged him to enroll the child in the School, and while the child was there the school made arrangement for the child to be operated to which he was initially opposed to fearing for the life of his daughter during the operation given that Khadija has an epilepsy problem. It was not until the doctors assured him that it will be okay that he accepted the child to be operated and now he is a proud parent after Khadija regained her sight. Khadija was there for the public to see and realize that with timely intervention, some blindness can be reversed. 

Eventually several people were Blindfolded and led outside the Hall where they  alked with white canes and tried to locate their way back to the hall. After the Blindfolding of the participants narrated to the Audience their experience when blindfolded and expressed their  espect for those who are Blind, given that they can be able to locate their way while Blind whereas it was a tall task for the participants to locate their way back to the hall while blindfolded, so they urged the rest of the Audience to take care of their sight. After the World Sight day the student visited the local radio station on Friday 10th as part of follow-up radio programs which were to highlight the need for care for our eyes as well as causes and prevention of Blindness and promotion of the need to take blind children to School. On 15th October the community came together to commemorate the White cane day. 

This time round the public converged at Merka beach where Rainbow school for the Blind, Ali Banadir primary School and several other schools in Merka were meeting for an Athletic competition in the morning. Both sighted and visually impaired students had an opportunity to interact there by creating social
integrations through games. In the afternoon the students proceeded to the football field where they had an opportunity to showcase goal ball game to the public whereby they competed with blindfolded sighted children. Rainbow School students emerged the winners after scoring 3.0 against the youth from Merka town. 

All these activities were covered by local radio stations, through which we were able to reach a larger audience with messages promoting prevention of Blindness dominating local Radio stations and talk shows. To sum up the success of these activities were made possible through the financial support that we received from WHO Somalia office and HISAN Regional office in Nairobi. Also the input of Dr Fuje, Dr Ahmed and Dr Sheikh Hassan WHO Merka, SungDuck cho, Regional Director HISAN as well as all staff and students of Rainbow School for the Blind went a long way in ensuring that we had a successful occasion which in spite of the current security situation we never thought we will manage to achieve.