The Rotary Club of Guyana has partnered with the Dominion Rotary Club of San Antonio, Texas, Sights Unseen, the Ministries of Education and Health and four vision care centres to provide glasses to 240 students from 12 schools and groups in Georgetown and on the East Coast.
The project, which is being directed by Rotarian and Peace Corps volunteer Dr Doug Hall, began on Sunday and will extend to tomorrow.
Samantha Henry, Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar and the local representative of the project, gave an overview of its beginnings yesterday at the ‘Sights Unseen’ luncheon reception.
Henry shared that in 2014, she was approached by Dr Hall with the idea to bring eyeglasses to students across Guyana to improve their literacy.
The vision was to foster a collaboration between the San Antonio Club in Texas, of which Hall is a member, the local Rotary chapters and the group, Sights Unseen, which provides glasses to persons in developing countries who cannot afford eye care.
When the representatives for Sights Unseen could not make the date scheduled for distribution of the eyewear, local vision centres readily jumped on board to assist in the project so the eyeglasses could be delivered to schools as was promised.
According to Henry, the Ministries of Education and Health were involved in the selection process, as they chose the schools that would benefit from the project. Courts Optical, Optique Vision Care, Modern Optical and DaSilva’s Optical—the providers of the eyewear for the project—facilitated the screening process.
Twenty students from each selected school and group will benefit. The targeted institutions are: the University of Guyana Rotaract Literacy Group in Victoria, the Library Literacy Group, Rotary Clubs Literacy group children, Joshua House Orphanage, St Ann’s Orphanage, Christ Church Secondary, Cummings Lodge Secondary, Annandale Secondary, Richard Ishmael Secondary, Buxton Secondary, FE Pollard Primary and students in the Kitty community.
