Despite being a very important topic, and an aspect that affects the lives of millions of people, visual impairment is rarely discussed. It’s refreshing to see campaigns that address the implications of different forms of visual impairment. Just like the ice bucket challenge that went viral a few years ago, aiming to raise awareness on AMS (Amyotrophic Lateral sclerosis), a new campaign with the hashtag #knowhowIsee, is showing people what it feels like to live with a visual impairment.
According to Baseera Foundation, out of 28 million people with visual impairment in Egypt, 21 million can be given the chance to lead normal lives if they’re diagnosed early or receive proper treatment. As for the remaining, approximately 1 million suffer from blindness, and the other 6 million suffer from low vision, and are, unfortunately, neglected in our society. To help spread awareness on low vision conditions, Baseera Foundation launched a campaign to give people a glimpse of the lives of people with visual impairment because “seeing the world through the eye of a visually impaired person will allow you to understand and empathize”.
Egyptian artists like Riham Abdelghafour and Ahmad Fahmy posted pictures of different forms of distorted images of themselves with captions explaining the effect of specific low vision conditions, like Cataract and Macular Degeneration.
Throughout the month of February, the campaign will address low vision conditions, and spread awareness on the services provided at Baseera Foundation.