Carlsbad, CA, (November 29, 2011) — SynergEyes, Inc., the leader in hybrid contact lens technology, recently took the World Sight Day Challenge to help give sight to people in developing countries. The company raised over $11,000 in the month of October to help provide eye exams and glasses to children in developing countries who can’t see well enough to learn at school, as well as adults who don’t see well enough to provide for their families.
Optometry Giving Sight, the organizer of the World Sight Day Challenge, funds programs that: 1) provide eye exams and glasses, 2) train local eye care professionals, and 3) develop vision centers that provide long-term vision care to people in desperate need. There are 670 million people who are blind or vision impaired simply because they don’t have access to an eye examination and glasses.
“I am proud to support such a worthwhile cause,” said Jim Ham, President and CEO. “It’s easy to take good vision for granted so taking the World Sight Day Challenge is a great way to raise funds to help people who don’t have access to even basic vision care.”
The employees at SynergEyes were inspired by stories like that of 18 year old Donglian from rural China – although her blurred vision stopped her from seeing the blackboard, she hadn’t told her teacher as she didn’t want to make a fuss. Caring for her mentally ill father and working the family’s farmland for four hours each day before school, Donglian couldn’t afford an eye exam. Thanks to a new pair of glasses she now has the opportunity to fulfill the potential she has already shown in her young life.
By the end of 2011, projects funded by Optometry Giving Sight will aim to give over 300,000 people an eye exam, dispense over 30,000 pairs of glasses and train nearly 700 local people to continue delivering eye care to communities in need across Latin America, Africa and Asia.
For more information about Optometry Giving Sight and the World Sight Day Challenge, visit www.givingsight.org. To learn more about SynergEyes and their contact lenses for astigmatism, presbyopia and keratoconus, visit www.synergeyes.com.
Optometry Giving Sight is the only global fundraising initiative that specifically targets the prevention of blindness and impaired vision due to uncorrected refractive error – simply the need for an eye exam and a pair of glasses. It is a joint initiative of the World Optometry Foundation, the International Centre for Eyecare Education and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness. Global industry sponsors include CIBA VISION, the Brien Holden Vision Institute and CooperVision.
About World Sight Day
World Sight Day is an initiative of VISION 2020: The Right to Sight and is supported by the World Health Organization (WHO); the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness and non- government organizations with the shared goal of eliminating avoidable blindness by the year 2020, in order to give all people in the world the right to sight. This year, World Sight Day will be held on Thursday October 13.
About the World Sight Day Challenge
The World Sight Day Challenge is a major fundraising campaign coordinated by Optometry Giving Sight to raise funds for projects that provide vision care, local training and infrastructure support for people who are blind or vision impaired due to uncorrected refractive error – simply the need for an eye exam and a pair of glasses.
Businesses are invited to participate by: • Becoming a donor – donate monthly or make a single donation, • Inviting employees to donate, • Celebrating World Sight Day in your business on or around October 13th.
About SynergEyes
SynergEyes®, Inc. was founded in 2001 with a recognized need for a contact lens that combined the superior visual acuity of a rigid gas permeable lens with the comfort of a soft contact lens. The patented technology with FDA market clearance is providing comfortable clear vision through the services of more than 7000 eye care practitioners worldwide.
