Unite For Sight Founder Profiled In "Our Time is Now: Young People Changing the World"

Twenty-four year old Jennifer Staple, Founder, CEO and President of Unite For Sight, is one of 30 young leaders profiled in the recently released book, Our Time is Now: Young People Changing the World.

As a young woman working a summer job at an ophthalmology office in Summer 2000, she was exposed to the need for eye care education and screening programs in her local community. While others might have felt helpless to affect change, Jennifer began Unite For Sight, a nonprofit organization that addresses preventable blindness. The organization, which started humbly in Staple's college dorm room, has now become a global entity serving over 400,000 people in 25 countries.

In the book Our Time is Now: Young People Changing the World, Dr. Bernard Kouchner, Co-Founder of Medecins Sans Frontieres and Former Head of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo, wrote of Jennifer's work: "Over the centuries, most leaders have sought to bring about change through military intervention. I've tried to mobilize people to undertake another strategy - humanitarian intervention. Every citizen has the right to receive care and live with dignity, and national boundaries and political or financial circumstances cannot influence who receives that support. Through her work to expand the fight against blindness around the globe, Jennifer Staple has intervened in some of the world's poorest communities to ensure that their citizens, too, can lead healthy and productive lives."

Dr. James C. Toole, President of the Compass Institute, discusses in the book why Jennifer was able to build Unite For Sight into a twenty-five-country network: "Probably for two reasons: first, people sensed the gravity of the issue, and second, as one person shared about her, "she simply captures their imaginations."

With a foreword by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Our Time is Now: Young People Changing the World, written by Sheila Kinkade and Christy Macy and released by the International Youth Foundation (IYF), is certain to be an inspiration to any who read it. Sir David Bell, Chairman of IYF and the Financial Times Group says, "Our Time is Now highlights the contributions of today's youth while offering practical advice for those who seek to follow in their footsteps."

To learn more about Our Time is Now: Young People Changing the World, visit http://pearsonfoundation.org/IYF/ourtimeisnow/

About Unite For Sight

Unite For Sight® is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that empowers communities worldwide to improve eye health and eliminate preventable blindness. Local and visiting volunteers work with partner eye clinics to provide eye care in communities without previous access, with the goal of creating eye disease-free communities. Additionally, vision screening and education programs are implemented worldwide by volunteers working in ninety chapters established at universities in North America, Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

For further information:

Unite For Sight
www.uniteforsight.org
Email: JStaple@uniteforsight.org