GOLDEN, Colo.--AllAboutVision.com will offer a premium listing in its Eye Care Practitioner Directory for all optometrists who sign up for Optometry Giving Sight’s World Sight Day Challenge.

The World Sight Day Challenge invites all optometrists to donate their eye exam fees to Optometry Giving Sight on World Sight Day (Oct. 9, 2008) to help fund projects that will provide vision care, local training and infrastructure development in countries that lack basic eyecare services.

Current and new regular donors are also eligible for the premium listing, which will include practice name, street address, telephone number, Web site link and an icon denoting the practice as an Optometry Giving Sight donor.

To take advantage of this special offer, optometrists just need to sign up for the World Sight Day Challenge and link their practice Web site to the AllAboutVision.com Web site. The Web site, which served 8.2 million visitors in 2007, provides valuable information to patients about the importance of eye health and regular visits to their optometrist.

“The World Sight Day Challenge is a great way for optometrists to raise funds for the estimated 300 million people who are blind or vision impaired,” said Ron Walker, AllAboutVision.com publisher. “Additionally the AllAboutVision.com Directory can help practices reach out to new patients.”

Optometrists can register for the Challenge at www.givingsight.org or by calling 1-888-OGS-GIVE.

To link to AllAboutVision.com visit: http://www.allaboutvision.com/ecp/.

In other news, Optometry Giving Sight (OSG) and Volunteer Optometric Services to Humanity (VOSH) International have formed a cooperative partnership and the two groups signed a “memorandum of understanding.”

The memorandum recognizes Optometry Giving Sight’s special expertise in the raising of funds for programs to support the goals of VISION 2020: The Right to Sight in the area of uncorrected refractive error and also VOSH International’s activities in the design, implementation and execution of such programs.

Under the terms of the agreement, Optometry Giving Sight will allocate a percentage of total donor funds raised in the U.S. to VOSH International for sustainable vision care projects that build local capacity and infrastructure. In addition, VOSH International will be able to apply for grant funds from the general grant pool when these are announced.

OSG has also agreed to award a seat on its National Committee to VOSH International, and VOSH International has agreed to award a seat on its Board of Directors to Optometry Giving Sight.

“VOSH has made a big difference in the world with its short term missions,” said Larry Hookway, president of VOSH International. “Now that world attention has started to include uncorrected refractive error, we have a chance to shift our focus to more sustainable systems.”

“Working cooperatively will vastly enhance the activities, profiles and reputations of both organizations and will permit access to shared resources,” said Vic Connors, OD, chairman of Optometry Giving Sight.

Optometry Giving Sight is a joint initiative of the World Optometry Foundation, the International Centre for Eyecare Education and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness. National industry sponsors include CIBA VISION, the Institute for Eye Research, Marchon, Vision Source!, Signet Armorlite, AllAboutVision.com and EyeVis Eye and Vision Research Institute. ■