Lions Club brings sight to children in Afghanistan

October 21, 2009

Do you have extra eyeglasses? The National Lions Club is facilitating Sight Night, in which volunteers collect old or unused eyeglasses door to door, instead of candy. If you received a flyer on your door about the event, simply have extra eyeglasses ready at the door.

The Lions Club is well-known for their efforts to bring sight to the untreated, but recently a chapter in Washington state, the Longview/Kelso Early Bird Lions Club, rounded up 760 pairs of donated eyeglasses and mailed them to Afghanistan, the Seattle PI reported. When the eyeglasses arrive, an Air Force optometrist will distribute them to civilians, mostly children.

Longview native Eric Worth, a sergeant in the Marines was stationed in Afghanistan and noted the need for eye care and prescription glasses among civilians there. He wrote his parents and asked that they organize a drive to supply the children of southeastern Afghanistan with hearing aids and eyeglasses, the news source reports.

Even in America, children might not always receive the eye care that they require. The American Optometric Association suggests that infants receive an eye exam at six months and again at age three to make sure his or her vision is developing properly.