Lions Recycle for Sight
Prisoners help give the Gift of Sight!

Inmates at Silverwater Corrective Services Work Centre Prisoners help give the Gift of Sight!
For many years inmates at Silverwater Corrective Services Work Centre have been grading, adjusting and cleaning hundreds of thousands of pairs of old glasses. Recently fifty thousand glasses, were shipped to Thailand as part of Lions Australia's contribution to the LIONS INTERNATIONAL SIGHT FIRST PROGRAM with the courtesy of Thai International Airways.

Lions focus on "Sight' as one of its fund raising and volunteer work programs worldwide and, since 1990 has raised in excess of US$200 million to finance its Lions Sight First Program.

Lions have funded 82 eye clinics and hospitals, provided more than 2.5 million cataract surgeries, treated more than 3.3 million people to prevent river blindness, screened more than six million patients for eye disease, trained 3,000 eye care professionals and collected millions of old glasses for recycling to those in need.

Harold Zev, a member of the Lions Club of Ku-ring-gai in Sydney and one of the Lions Sight First Project Co-ordinators says, "We needed to have the glasses graded, cleaned, adjusted and packaged ready for use in the field. Via our long association with OPSM, who collect thousands of old glasses for us, we organised OPSM opticians to train people working at the Silverwater Work Release Centre to grade, clean and adjust these old lenses."

Harold Zev concluded, "Our sincere thanks go to the guys at Silverwater for being part of Lions project to give the gift of sight to those less fortunate, to the members of the public who have donated their old spectacles to this program, to all the Lions and helpers who collect the glasses and to the generous support of Thai International Airways and OPSM."

For more information on the Lions spectacle recycling project please contact:
Ken Leonard Tel: (07) 3293 0993 kleonard@bigpond.net.au or
Dick Pine Tel: (07) 5499 4285 dspine@bigpond.com