Rabaul eye patients await new glasses

STATISTICS from Callan Services for Persons with Disabilities Special Education Resource Centre in Rabaul indicate that East New Britain cannot meet the demand for affordable and accessible spectacles for people who need them.
Between September and December last year, Callan’s clinical staff prescribed 322 pairs of glasses but only 60 were given out.
According to Callan Rabaul programme assistant Alice Keeling, the statistics showed that many people in the province were living every day with vision problems and could not afford and have access glasses they required in the province.
She said, currently, close to 100 clients were waiting for their orders to arrive and Callan Rabaul clinic had been forced to stop taking orders until this backlog was cleared.
Keeling said to help address this problem, plans were already in place to host a corporate dinner next month to raise money for the construction of an optical workshop to make prescription glasses quickly and cost-effectively in the province.
Sponsored by SAS Security, the dinner aims to raise K15,000 for the establishment of the workshop to deliver direct and affordable spectacle repair, ready-made spectacles and custom-made spectacles.
The corporate dinner is the launch of an on-going fundraising drive that will continue into next year.
Callan Rabaul Coordinator Pius Norogua said not only would the project improve service delivery in ENB but it would also develop into an income-generating project for Callan Services Rabaul so that they could lessen their reliance on overseas donors as well as provide employment opportunities for local people with disabilities.
Corporate tables for 10 are available for K2,500 and the Callan office can be contacted on 982 9738 or 734 15455.