Thousands of glaucoma awareness initiatives have been held in countries circling the globe since World Glaucoma Day was launched in 2008 by the World Glaucoma Association and the World Glaucoma Patient Association and its expansion with World Glaucoma Week launched in 2010.

Many goals have been reached:

• WGW is successfully recognized on five continents and participants donate their time for one week each March. (Please add pictures of glaucoma screening in United Nations building)
• The work of national societies helps the WGW agenda reach rural as well as urban areas.
• There is a presence throughout the media (radio, TV, and newspapers) which spreads awareness about glaucoma in the news.
• Patient associations are involved in targeting activities for people at risk and providing useful information for the close relatives of glaucoma patients.

The number of people (aged 40-80 years) with glaucoma worldwide was estimated at 64.3 million in 2013, and is expected to increase to 76.0 million in 2020. Enormous efforts will be needed in the next decade to overcome the impact of glaucoma around the world. New strategies concerning glaucoma screening, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation are mandatory.

We accept this challenge and we are planning World Glaucoma Week 2017 with the following goals:

• Get national health authorities involved in a plan of action that combats glaucoma blindness.
• Produce educational materials about glaucoma that uses the most current content discussed by experts and distribute this information through the most contemporary strategies of communication.
• Expand the presence of WGW in social networks
• Concentrate our effort and resources on people who are unprivileged for eye care.

Screening for WGW in Lagos, Nigeria

We hope you will join us in spreading this initiative.

On behalf of the WGW committee,

Maria Carrasco, MD