Eyeglass Drive
Thank you very much for your generous offer to start an eyeglass drive. To start a Unite for Sight Eyeglass Drive, please complete the form below. We will contact you with additional information.
Importance Of Your Eyeglass Drive
- Over 1 billion people in developing countries need eyeglasses but cannot afford them.
- Over 4 million pairs of eyeglasses are thrown away each year in North America.
- 25% of the global population needs eyeglasses.
- 50% of children in institutions for the blind in Africa would be able to read normal or large print if they had eyeglasses
- The price for glasses in Benin and other African countries can exceed three months' average salary
By the end of the trip in Nagpur, India, our team of Medicovet ophthalmologists and Unite For Sight volunteers distributed 1,100 eyeglasses and provided 56 free cataract
surgeries. More importantly, from empty stares and morose expressions to broad grins and laughing eyes, the spirit of the villagers was completely transformed. I have never before experienced anything as inherently gratifying as the look on their faces.-Rickin Shah, Unite For Sight Volunteer in Nagpur, India
I lived next to the village midwife, and the midwife's husband sometimes took over duties if
she was away. I came to visit one night while he was setting up an injection to give some man whose chief complaint was being tired. He spent about 5 full minutes loading the syringe with the antibiotic and then injected the man. He aimed the needle for the bottle of antibiotic and missed by about an inch. I thought he was joking at first. He later told me that he was nearly blind in one eye, but couldn't have the surgery. It was very expensive, and he was afraid that the doctor might make a mistake, and then he would be left without his eyesight. Since he is a farmer, he needs his sight to support his family. He pulled out a pair of broken glasses occasionally, but he said they didn't help much. He asked me to bring back a good pair of glasses when I return from America. This is not a poor man by the village standards; he is better off than most, and he is the only person I have seen in the village with any glasses, even if they are broken.-Diana Rickard, Ghana Health and Education Initiative, Unite For Sight Partner