Specsavers Cranbourne is on a mission to take on a major global health crisis and is calling on locals for help.
The store is launching a glasses recycling program in partnership with Lions Recycle for Sight, which will see quality glasses and sunglasses being delivered to people in need overseas.
Recent global studies have shown that there are 101.2 million people visually impaired as a result of not having access to glasses to correct simple vision problems.
Specsavers Cranbourne, co-owner Dominic Boucher says “When I found out just how many people are going blind in impoverished communities around the world simply because they don’t have access to glasses, I was shocked and we had to do something about it.
“Blindness and vision impairments are so much worse in third world countries because they can mean the difference between people being able to have a job and feed their family, or not,” he said.
“We’ve set ourselves a target of collecting 100 pairs of glasses each month, but the more we can collect, the better because every pair of glasses will make a significant difference,” said Mr Boucher.
Once glasses are collected, they will be sent to Lions Recycle for Sight in Queensland, which runs a glasses recycling facility that quality checks, cleans and categorises the glasses before being distributed to people in need overseas.
Chairman of Lions Recycle for Sight, Ken Leonard OAM says “Over the past 26 years, we’ve delivered more than seven million pairs of refurbished quality glasses to people in need all around the world.”
Mr Boucher said the Cranbourne store’s recycling program allowed people to donate their pre-loved specs to change someone else’s life by placing them in the glasses recycling collection bin or handing them to a team member.
For more information visit www.specsavers.com/community-program.
