SPECTACULAR MISSION

There are many many people in this world who have visual impairment and are unable to afford even a pair of spectacles.  There is a seventeen year old Indian Girl who is on a "Spectacular Mission".  She collect used spectacles and donates them to a Non Government Organisation, who in turn make these spectacles usable for the needy.

This Spectacular Mission is started by Aarushi Gupta who is a resident in New Delhi in India.  She says providing spectacles to the poor people can fill a is a very basic need as it will eliminate the avoidable blindness.  What a spectacular effort and noble thought.  Hats off to Aarushi for taking this unique initiative at that young age.

This young girl has collected more than 1500 spectacles and helped poor people to regain vision.  If a young girl can collect 1500 spectacles through her sustained efforts, I am sure each and every one of us can collect atleast 100 spectacles each year through our own known contact circles.

I am sure in every household there will be atleast couple of old spectacles which is catching dust in one of the corners of the house.  These old spectacles are of no use to the people living in that house but can be very very useful to a poor person in some corner of this world.  

Throwing the unwanted or used spectacles in the Dust Bin is not at all a good decision.  These spectacles can be probably used by someone in need.  Secondly, by throwing them in the dust bin we are only causing environmental hazard.  By donating the used spectacles to the poor we are not only helping someone with vision but we are also saving the environment.  Recyling the used frames would mean lesser amount of metals and plastics ending up in the landfills thus reducing the carbon emission.

Vision 2020 is a global initiative for the elimination of avoidable blindness.  This is a joint programme of World Health Organisation and International Agency for the Preventive Blindness.
According to some reports there are more than 285 million people in the world who are visually impaired.  Out of these 39 million are completely blind and the remaining 246 million have low vision.  These are people who need a spectacle to be able to see clearly but cannot afford to buy them.  I clearly understand the need for spectacles as my vision is very poor without the spectacles and I just cannot read if I do not wear them.

Vision 2020 is a great initiative to complete remove avoidable blindness by the year 2020.  It is a very small action at our end to donate used spectacles but it can made a very big difference as it will provide vision to a needy person somewhere in the world.

It is so amazing that many such small actions makes a big difference in life.



Let us start with some small actions - if not every day atleast one small action every week.  That would mean 52 small actions in a year making 52 very big differences in very many peoples lives across the globe.

T.P.Anand
Dubai, U.A.E.
1st December 2014