Hastings optometrist Niall McCormack, left, with some of the more than 1300 pairs of glasses to be repurposed
and taken to Tanzania, with Havelock North Rotary Club Rotary Foundation Chair, Peter Mayne.
Improved eye care for East African orphans, thanks to local Rotary.
The Rotary Club of Havelock North has led a project to deliver eye care solutions to vision-impaired orphans and their caregivers in impoverished areas of Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Kenya.
Used eyeglasses can be repurposed at minimal cost to help vision-impaired people. The Club, with the help of other Hawke’s Bay Rotary clubs, has collected more than 1300 pairs of glasses that will be repurposed and taken to Tanzania next year by Hastings optometrist, Niall McCormack.
McCormack volunteered to provide eye care to children and their carers at an orphanage in Uganda in 2017. The level of need he saw there prompted him to found the charity, Eye Care for Africa when he returned home.
“I saw children with conditions such as cataracts, and knew their lives could be vastly improved with appropriate eye care,” he says.
Eye Care for Africa aims to:
• service the eye care of children in East Africa who live in orphanages
• provide local training to enable eye care to become more sustainable
• provide equipment to enable local people to continue the services
• provide a scholarship for a Hawke’s Bay student to experience Eye Care for Africa’s work.
• provide local training to enable eye care to become more sustainable
• provide equipment to enable local people to continue the services
• provide a scholarship for a Hawke’s Bay student to experience Eye Care for Africa’s work.
McCormack says the glasses collected by Rotary will make a huge difference to the quality of vision, and therefore the lives, of children and their carers in Tanzania.
Chair of Havelock North Rotary Club’s Rotary Foundation Committee, Peter Mayne, says the club originally aimed to collect 1000 pairs of used glasses for the project.
“We’re delighted at the response and, with the help of other Hawke’s Bay Rotary clubs, have exceeded our target to support this vital work and improve the lives of so many in the most marginalised areas of East Africa.”
McCormack will begin walking the 3000km Te Araroa trail in late October to raise funds to establish an eye clinic in a remote area in Northern Tanzania. For more information and to donate visit https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/eye-care-for-africa.
For further information contact Peter Mayne, 0274438505.