Lions launches SightFirst project 


     2011-October-10  08:53    Shenzhen Daily
 

    Han Ximin

    LIONS Clubs International Foundation (LCIF), in partnership with the Ministry of Health and China Disabled Persons’ Federation, pledged to donate US$2.67 million for the third phase of its SightFirst China Action (SFCA) program in Shenzhen yesterday, the Lions World Sight Day.

    The fund will be used on the development of a model low vision rehabilitation system, the Shenzhen Lions Low Vision Rehabilitation Center in Shenzhen, and two additional low vision centers in Liaoning and Guangdong provinces.

    SFCA was officially launched nationwide in 1999 and had benefited from donations of more than US$30 million from LCIF and US$200 million from the Chinese Government.

    These funds have allowed for a strengthened national optometric infrastructure through upgrading 300 secondary eye care units in hospitals across underdeveloped counties and provinces. It also concentrated on reducing instances of cataract-caused blindness in China, operating on 5.2 million cataract patients.

    “Phase 3 launches a new focus on blinding trachoma, low vision centers and strengthening eye care linkages,” said Tam Win-kun, president of the International Association of Lions Clubs. “We are happy to launch Phase 3 and aim to eradicate blinding trachoma in China by 2016,” Tam said.

    The World Health Organization (WHO) has listed trachoma as the second-most serious eye disease after cataracts in its VISION 2020: The Right to Sight campaign, according to Silvio Mariotti, senior medical officer in charge of global elimination of trachoma for WHO. The disease has reached epidemic proportions in rural and remote parts of China.

    Lions Clubs International is the world’s largest service club organization, with more than 1.3 million members in more than 45,000 clubs worldwide. It established a Lions Club in Shenzhen in 2002.
 


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