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October is Blindness Awareness Month, a day set aside to shed light on the importance of vision care and educational outreach. One local organization works year-round to bring awareness, but also to help people around the globe to have healthy vision.

On Saturday, CharityVision, which is based in Provo, celebrated Blindness Awareness Month by holding World Sight Day Art at the The Shops at Riverwoods. The event was open to all community members who wanted to come celebrate sight and the blessings it brings.

Artists were on hand so visitors could watch them create their works. Easels, art supplies and coloring pages were available and people were encouraged to bring their own art projects. The prompt of the day was, Because I see

Our goal is to help people be aware of their vision and the beauty they can see, said Anadine Marshall, CharityVision program director. We want to bring awareness that, all over the world, people struggle with vision.

According to http://www.charityvision.org, Dr. William Jackson, founder, was serving a mission for his church in the Philippines in 1987. While there, he realized that the optimal healthcare solution was not to be found in foreign doctors making medical mission trips. Rather, the solution was with local healthcare professionals.

He organized teams of local professionals who were willing and able to help the vulnerable of their own country who were living with cleft lip, cleft palate, cataracts and club foot. Then called the Deseret International Foundation, it was the beginning of CharityVision.

In the early 2000s, the organization, which is funded largely through donations and some business partnerships, began focusing on eye care.

In just over 30 years, CharityVision has expanded to 26 countries and hundreds of partnerships with local hospitals, doctors and clinics around the globe, it reads on the website.

Doug Jackson, Dr. Jacksons son, now oversees the organization. According to him, CharityVision provided 146,000 surgeries around the world last year alone. Doug Jackson said that the organization helps to provide help to people with all types of vision-related problems. Cataracts are the most commonly treated condition, he said.

When we think of cataracts, we often think of someones vision getting somewhat blurry, but for most of the people that CharityVision helps in other countries, the cataracts have caused complete blindness.

With surgery, they go from blind to sight, Doug Jackson said.

Many of the people we help have nowhere to turn. They cant work, cant go to school, Doug Jackson said. We say, Youre not forgotten.

The organization sends equipment and supplies and at times, sends expeditions to countries. But mostly, support is given to the local doctors and programs in various locations so local people in need are able to get help.

In addition to the international support that CharityVison gives, the organization helps people locally as well. Through the Sight Buddies program, children in Utah County schools are screened. Based on the initial screenings, those who need further screening are able to do that with an eye doctor and can even receive free eyeglasses through the program.

There are 2.2 billion people in the world who dont have access to eyecare who need it, Doug Jackson said. Many have nowhere to turn, they cant work, they cant go to school. We say, Youre not forgotten. When you give somebody their sight back, you give them the world.

See the article here:
Provo-based organization CharityVision sees way to fight blindness - Daily Herald

This entry was posted on October 13, 2020 at 2:58 pm and is filed under Blindness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |