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Optometry Giving Sight to make first $1 million distribution
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Optometry Giving Sight announced at the American Academy of Optometry meeting in Tampa, Fla., that the first $1 million will be distributed by the end of the year for projects to give sight to people with refractive error blindness and impaired vision.
OGS executive chairman Brien A. Holden, PhD, DSc, LOSc, announced that funds raised by optometrists, their staff, patients and optometric students in Australia, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Europe will be directed to projects in Africa, Sri Lanka, East Timor and Indigenous Australia.
"We are on track to raise the next $4 million in 2008 and 2009, and the board thought it wise for strategic planning and synergy purposes to allocate funds going forward to complete the current priority projects," Prof. Holden said.
OGS's goal is to work with optometry to help the 300 million people worldwide who are blind or vision impaired because they do not have glasses. These disbursements demonstrate optometry's capacity to fund projects over the next 3 years in association with Standard Chartered Bank and the United States Agency for International Development-sponsored International Centre for Eyecare Education programs, giving more than 5 million people in need access to eye care services.
For more information or to make a donation, visit www.givingsight.org or call 1-888-OGS-GIVE. Primary Care Optometry News provides this information as a service to its readers.