Local optometrists Dr. Angela Hern, Dr. Nixon White, Dr. John Black, Dr. Sandeep Sidhu, Dr. Anisha Bhagat and Dr. Kimberly Tsang of FYidoctors Surrey are taking part in the World Sight Day Challenge during October to help give the gift of vision to people in areas of need.
Now in its seventh year, the World Sight Day Challenge is the largest annual global fundraising campaign to address avoidable blindness caused by uncorrected refractive error – simply the need for an eye exam and glasses.
The campaign's goal for 2014 is to raise $1 million globally.
Throughout October, and on World Sight Day (Oct. 9), FYidoctors Surrey will hold fundraising events to help the more than 600 million people in the world who are blind or vision impaired because they do not have access to an eye exam or glasses.
The campaign is run by global charity Optometry Giving Sight.
“We have supported Optometry Giving Sight for six years,” said Dr. Sidhu. “Preventable blindness is a solvable problem and we are proud to help give sight to those in need. We are thrilled to be contributing towards this year's $1 million goal, which will improve the lives of many people.”
Participating in the challenge is easy – simply make a single or monthly donation before the end of October.
Every contribution is meaningful. Just $5 can be enough to help provide an eye exam and a pair of glasses to someone living in an underserved community, $50 can help provide a study kit to an optometry student, $100 can help provide 20 people with access to an eye exam and glasses, $300 can help provide a child-size trial frame and $1,200 could pay a month's salary for an optometrist to see up to 40 patients a day.
FYidoctors Surrey is located at Unit 101, 6398 120 St. Call 604-591-3377 to schedule an appointment.
Manny (pictured) was one of the tens of thousands of women, children and men who lost everything when tropical Typhoon Haiyan smashed into the Philippines in November 2014. Optometry Giving Sight was pleased to support the efforts of Third World Eye Care Society from Canada who mobilized volunteers and resources to visit the country in late January 2014. More than 8,000 people received glasses as a result of their efforts.
To date Optometry Giving Sight has funded 67 projects in 38 countries.
For more information, visit to www.givingsight.org