SightFirst II  

If you have old spectacles to donate please send a message via our "CONTACT US"  

There are many ways in which you can help us to help others and you don't even have to be a member!

It's a stark fact - by the time you finish reading this page, one child somewhere in the world will have gone blind.

One goes blind every minute. Half-a-million will have lost their sight by the end of the year.

Childhood blindness is only one part of the global vision crisis. If nothing is done, experts say that the world's blind population could double  exponentially. 

The SightFirst Program - SightFirst 2 is the second stage of a fundraising campaign to gain money specifically for blindness
Since 1990, Lions have done more to prevent blindness and restore sight than in their previous 65 years as "knights of the blind." In a decade-and-a-half, Lions have prevented severe vision loss or restored sight to 27 million people - more than the combined populations of New York and Tokyo.

Since 1990, SightFirst has:

Prevented serious vision loss for 27 million

Provided 80.5 million treatments for river blindness

Awarded US$202 million for 841 projects in 90 countries

Restored sight to 7 million with cataract

Improved eye-care services for hundreds of millions

Built or expanded 213 eye hospitals, clinics and wards 

Upgraded 325 eye centers with equipment

Trained 305,000 ophthalmologists, ophthalmic nurses, other professional eye-care workers and village health workers 

Launched world's first-ever initiative to combat childhood blindness in partnership with the World Health Organization.

Thirty pediatric eye-care centers will be established  

How can you help?

Make a donation

Do some fundraising of your own  

To find out more click on the following WEB site 

www.lionsclubs.org/EN/index.php

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How You Can Help Someone To See Properly

Have you any old or unwanted spectacles?   If you do, Hook and Odiham Lions would be glad to receive them, as one of the ways in which Lions try to be Knights of the Blind is by recycling unwanted spectacles. Every year, in late April, Petersfield Lions hold a SPEKTREK where they visit various locations within our Lions District to pick up the spectacles collected by over sixty Lions clubs.  Often in excess of over 100,000 pairs are collected!  Hook and Odiham Lions are one of the clubs who participate.

How can you help us?   You can give us your unwanted spectacles.  You can leave them at the venues listed elsewhere in this news sheet. Father Christmas or his helpers are always willing to receive glasses when they call upon you in December or when they are outside local shops.  Finally, you can always give them to Lions at any events in which they are participating in the local area or you can contact myself.

Once collected, the spectacles are stored in Petersfield until they can be passed to Chichester Lions who, with the help of Midhurst Lions, sort them, removing any broken ones.  They are then sent to Medico France in Le Havre which is run by the local Lions club. Here all spectacles are washed and cleaned before being sorted by grading machines; placed in plastic wallets and labelled with the grade. 

Once this has happened they are sent to Lions clubs and other organisations in twenty-three different countries, mainly in Africa and Eastern Europe for distribution to those who would not otherwise have access to spectacles because of the high cost (between three and six months wages).  Medico France has three full-time employees whilst the administration is provided by Lions.  The costs are covered by French Lions clubs, grants and from selling second hand clothes.

Imagine for a moment what it would be like not to have clear vision and how wonderful it would be to see clearly.  Your old, unwanted spectacles can provide this gift of clear vision to some one else and transform their lives.  
Report by Lion Judith Goodchild.

Where To Hand In Unwanted Spectacles

Any Lion you know will be pleased to receive them and pass them on.