Staff
Looking beyond Rainy River District, local optometrists Dr. Robert Lidkea, Dr. George Elliott, and Dr. Bruce Lidkea are helping to transform the lives of those without access to even basic eye care services by participating in today’s World Sight Day Challenge.
“I am proud to join thousands of optometrists around the world in making a difference,” Dr. Bruce Lidkea said about their participation in World Sight Day, where they will be donating examination fees from today towards helping the estimated 670 million men, women, and children globally who are blind or vision-impaired simply because they do not have access to an eye exam and pair of glasses.
“The patients I see every day have a number of sophisticated vision care services and vision correction options available to them,” Dr. Lidkea noted.
“Yet there are millions of people around the world who don’t even have access to the basics—an eye exam and eyeglasses,” he stressed. “There are millions of children who can’t see at school and adults who can’t work to provide for their families.
“We are proud to be able to support ‘Optometry Giving Sight’ in its efforts to bring sight to people in countries with little or no access to quality vision care,” he added.
“Optometry Giving Sight,” organizer of the World Sight Day Challenge, supports programs that offer eye exams and glasses, as well as establish vision centres and train local eye care professionals in communities with little or no access to eye care services.
By the end of this year, “Optometry Giving Sight” will have distributed $3 million through its partners to help screen and provide basic eye care services to more than 1.7 million people, train 1,550 mid-level eye care personnel, and create 101 vision centres/optical workshops.
The funds will be directed to projects in Sri Lanka, southern Africa, East Timor, Latin America, Indigenous Australia, Papua New Guinea, as well as other parts of the world.
“Optometry Giving Sight” guarantees that 85 percent of all funds raised by optometrists and their patients go directly to programs to give sight to those most in need.
Patients also are welcome to make donations to “Optometry Giving Sight” at Lidkea Optometry throughout October.
