EYEGLASSES for the NEEDY
Complex Problem – Simple Solution
The GLOBAL re-VISION Program is a proven new clinical approach that can successfully remedy 95% of ALL vision impairments!
Our GLOBAL reVISION Network is a collaboration of governmental agencies - non-profit organizations - Rotary, Lions and other community and charitable service groups
to establish permanent primary eye care clinics employing easily-trained local workers to serve the needy poor.
Clinics correct refractive error vision impairment more cost-effectively, more quickly, and more accurately than ever before possible
using ONLY donated, RECYCLED eyeglasses,
a custom-developed computer program, and electronic vision diagnostic equipment.
CHECK OUT OUR VIDEO OF THE MAYAN VISION CLINIC AND THE WORK WE ARE DOING RIGHT NOW ! GO DIRECTLY TO YOUTUBE.com VIDEO
These clinics can also screen for cataracts and other vision impairments.
The GLOBAL re-VISION Program has been in international development since 2002 and is founded on four simple principles:
1. Ultimately, the key to overcoming ignorance and poverty is education.
- 83% of all learning occurs through the eyes / sight / vision
- Vision impaired people have serious trouble reading resulting in an impaired learning process
- 21% of Americans age 15+ are functionally illiterate (50 million+ people)
2. A HUGE percentage of ALL people have vision impairment, and visual deficiency is the most pervcasive health disability in the world.
REFRACTIVE ERROR is the No. 1 learning disability, because if you cannot see properly, you will have difficulty reading, learning and performing necessary work skills to earn a living.
- WELL OVER 60% of the U.S. population has refractive error (near-sighted, far-sighted, astigmatism or presbyopia) that eyeglasses can correct (US National Institutes of Health estimate)
- Because of the lower age cohorts for developing countries (higher birth rates produce a greater proportion of children) and lesser lifespans (developing countries have very low percentages of populations >60), the global total needing eyeglasses is estimated by aggregation to be 3.2 BILLION people.
3. EXCLUDING refractive error, the World Health Organization estimates 162 million people are vision impaired by cataracts, corneal injury/disease, glaucoma, trachoma, macular degeneration
- ADDED TOGETHER, these impairments afflict LESS than 5% of the world’s vision impaired
- 95% of ALL 3.4 billion vision impaired people have refractive error that is correctable with glasses
- Well over Two Billion poor people in the world with refractive error cannot afford eyeglasses or have no access to eye care; THERE ARE AN ESTIMATED 26 million needy Americans who cannot afford eye care or eyeglasses in the richest country n Earth!
4. Technologies and organizations exist to solve this problem AND can utilize donated, recycled eyeglasses
- In November 2006, the model GLOBAL re-VISION clinic opened in Mérida, Mexico
- The GLOBAL re-VISION Program provided concept, funding, equipment, training, and 80,000 used glasses collected by Lions, processed by Success Rotaract, and distributed by Rotary
- Immediate success led Government to create its first Department of Visual Health which also screens for cataracts, which comprise 3% of all vision impairments. 26 free cataract surgeries were performed in 2007.
- The clinic facility is being enlarged and the program dramatically expanded in 2008
- Well over 150 million eyeglasses are replaced and/or discarded in just the US each year
- Several US states are now considering adopting this program to help their indigent citizens.
AND…. EVERYONE WHO WEARS EYEGLASSES CAN HELP!
