Old Prescription Glasses Needed in Botswana

[tuggem]

Hi friends,

I found this heartbreaking post on the Nata Village Blog of Botswana recently and contacted Melody Jenkins of the group that publishes the blog.  She and I discussed the need for prescription glasses (including sunglasses) for the elderly in her village and I decided to send out an appeal to you to donate any old prescription glasses that you might have around your home for these beautiful people. 

If you have some old glasses that you can part with, please bundle them up carefully and mail them directly to the village at the following address:

Nata Village Prescription Glasses
c/o Melody Jenkins
Box 144
Nata Village, Botswana, Africa

Please pass the link to this post around so that we can help as many people as possible.  I sent off 6 pairs of prescription glasses last week that were sitting in a drawer at my home for years.  Melody tells me that the need is great and that it would be a kind of blessing to be inundated with glasses.  She promises that they will not be wasted...Nata will share with other villages if they can not use all of the glasses that they receive.

I hope that you will join me in this effort.

[Matty the Damned]

An very admirable effort this one. Matty the Damned donated his old prescription glasses to a similar operation many years ago.

Visual impairment is an enormous problem in these communities -- especially those who don't have electric light. Being able to see greatly increases the amount of productive time a person has in every day.

MtD

[Basquo]

DO they try to atch the precription to a person or do they make new lenses?  Just wondering if sending plain sunglasses helps at all (although I do have a 'script pair that I could send.)

[Matty the Damned]

Well they don't have the resources to produce new prescription lenses for people so they match the prescription of the lenses you send in to the particular need of a patient. Hence why they don't mind being inundated with more than they need.

The more lenses, the greater the number of different prescriptions they have. I don't think plain sunnies would be much use (though it couldn't hurt), but prescription sunnies would probably be very welcome too.

MtD

[tuggem]

I agree with Matty.  If you have some old sunnies, I am sure that someone would also find those useful.  This is a village where the nurses just received scrubs.  They were delivering HIV+ children in their street clothing without protection.  Donations have also made it possible for people to get private transport to the clinic rather than having to ride overcrowded and irregularly schedules buses.

Thanks for your interest! 

Ron

[sweetasmeli]

When my stuff arrives I'll dig out a couple of pairs I think are lurking around somewhere and send them off. I think Oxfam or one of the other charities in the UK does something similar too. Will check it out...

Thanks for the heads up, Ron.

Melia

[tuggem]

Thank you, Melia....J'aime bien votre photo!

Ron

[RapidRod]

I wish I would have known about this earlier, I just gave two pair to the Lion's Club. I don't know where they send them.

[dixieman]

I agree this is a worthy cause... but, I have been giving my support on a more local level here in Alabama to an orgainization to help those in need in Alabama for years... Faith Rescue Mission in Alabama... there are so many people who have fallen through the cracks of society... some to the fault of their own but, many who lack the resources here in our own backyard.

[tuggem]

Absolutely!  If you have local organizations (I know the Lion's Club promotes vision health) that have a need, that is another great way to get additional use from your old glasses.  Those organizations often can give you receipts for your tax records as well. 

I have been working with the Nata Village Blog for nearly a year with the International Carnival of Pozitivities.  Their needs are so huge that even things that seem really minor to us have great impact there.  The nurses there have been given scrubs recently.  The were delivering babies in their street clothes before the gift.  When we think how totally rich we are in comparison, even if we are needy ourselves, it becomes apparent how little some countries do have.

I guess that most people (in America, at least) would think to donate locally and to well-established organizations such as the Red Cross and Lion's Clubs.  If we have awareness of groups that are less likely to receive aid, then maybe our impact can be greater if we extend our blessings to them instead. 

The choice is yours.  You can not go wrong in being helpful to people less fortunate than yourself.