It has been eight years since the Citizens’ Association NAMASTE NEPAL in collaboration with Czech-Nepalese society and the DCWC Foundation (Development of Children and Women Center) decided to organise a collection of glasses for the vision impaired people of Nepal.
The idea was such that anyone who had glasses lying around that he or she was no longer using or needing could donate these through a network of collection boxes. There was also a huge demand for children’s glasses and sunglasses.
The collected glasses were repeatedly delivered to the remote Nepalese Tsum Valley through the Expedition Tsum Valley. This extremely poor region where dispersed in several villages a population of some 4,000 people of predominantly Tibetan origin live was only made accessible to foreigners in 2007.
The Refractive Center Prague was pleased to partake in this initiative by placing a collection box on its premises. This was the only collection box of its kind in the whole of Prague. We also helped in terms of making the project more visible in the media. The initiative was met with huge enthusiasm by the general public. Glasses were donated by our patients who post-surgery no longer needed theirs. Surprising numbers of glasses were also sent in from all over the country based on people’s awareness achieved through the medialisation of the project. The collected glasses were subsequently sorted, cleaned and measured at the Refractive Center Prague. Once this was completed, the glasses were carefully packed and handed over to the organisers.
