World Sight Day '08
 Imagine not being able to work or look after your family simply because you don't have access to an eye exam and a pair of glasses.
Take the World Sight Day Challenge
...and give sight - and hope - to people in need.
Register at www.givingsight.org
or contact 1-888-OGS-GIVE / usa@givingsight.org.www.givingsight.org
or contact 1-888-OGS-GIVE / usa@givingsight.org.
Calgary Fashion Designer Joins Local Optometrist In Fight Against Global Blindness
(Calgary, Sept. 25, 2008) . . . On World Sight Day, Oct. 9, Calgary fashion designer Paul Hardy will unveil a very special, limited collection of T-shirts designed to focus attention on global blindness. He is joining with Dr. Diana Monea, a Calgary optometrist to help some of the estimated 300 million people in the developing world who are blind or vision impaired simply for lack of an eye exam and a pair of glasses.
Dr. Monea will donate all of her eye examination fees from Oct. 9 to the cause. She and her staff will celebrate World Sight Day throughout the entire month, raising community awareness and inviting patients to join them in supporting the cause. Mr. Hardy’s T-shirts will be available for sale after Oct. 9 in his Kensington studio at Suite 4, 1126 Kensington Rd NW. All proceeds will be donated to Optometry Giving Sight.
“Here in Canada, we take things like eye glasses for granted,” explains Dr. Monea. “They’re readily available to those who need them. But in many countries, optometrists and the equipment needed to diagnose problems with eye sight are very scarce, and eye glasses are a luxury all too often out of reach.”
In the developing world, making a living is often a huge challenge. Serious vision problems add to that burden, threatening livelihoods and even lives. Children who need glasses but don’t have access to them are often left out of school, reducing their chances of living a better life and becoming contributing citizens in their communities.
Dr. Monea was inspired to help by stories like that of John Moria, a 67-year-old subsistence farmer in East Timor, who is extremely near-sighted. Having lost most of his family during the recent independence struggle, and with very limited vision, it was increasingly difficult for John to tend to his crops. In a country with no social welfare system, this was a threat to his very survival. Today, John has regained his sight and his autonomy. His life was literally saved by a pair of glasses.
Optometrists around the world will be joining Mr. Hardy and Dr. Monea in taking up the World Sight Day Challenge, an annual fundraising campaign of Optometry Giving Sight, a global initiative specifically targeting the prevention of blindness and impaired vision due to refractive error (the need for glasses). Last year, over $250,000 were raised and are currently providing vision care, training and infrastructure support in Sri Lanka, East Africa, East Timor and South Africa.
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Media Contact:
Dr. Diana Monea
Eye Health Centre
100-1228 Kensington Rd NW, Calgary
403-283-6636, dr_monea@hotmail.com
Jane Ebbern
Optometry Giving Sight
Phone: 1-800-585-8265 ext. 4
jane.ebbern@givingsight.org
About Optometry Giving Sight
Thanks to the support of industry partners, Optometry Giving Sight guarantees that 85 per cent of all funds raised go directly to programs that give sight to those in need. Optometry Giving Sight is a joint initiative of the World Optometry Foundation, the International Centre for Eyecare Education and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness. Industry sponsors include CIBA VISION, the Institute for Eye Research, Optometric Services Inc. (OSI), the Canadian Association of Optometrists, Centennial Optical, and Viscon Contact Lens Manufacturing Ltd.
About the World Sight Day Challenge
World Sight Day is an initiative of VISION 2020: The Right to Sight and is supported by the World Health Organization, the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness and more than 80 non-government organizations with the shared goal of eliminating avoidable blindness by the year 2020, in order to give all people in the world the right to sight. The theme for 2008 is The Aging Eye. For more information about Optometry Giving Sight and the World Sight Day Challenge, visit www.givingsight.org.
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