For as long as I can remember, I have been drawn to "the least of these." As an 11-year old volunteer at a food pantry in the suburbs of Chicago, a college student leader in a campus ministry in Spain, a helping hand in an L.A. church, volunteer and mentor in the Nashville area, a missionary with The World Race last year, and most recently as a team and I work together to start an organization to provide reading eyeglasses to children in Kenya. It was through The World Race that my team and I were assigned to serve, preach, teach, and counsel students of all ages in and around Kisumu and Isabania, Kenya, last summer.
After one particularly long and beautiful day of counselling, I asked our contacts and pastor about the number of students in need of glasses, for I had thought that there was a need, but was uncertain. I had worked with thousands of children and had seen less than a dozen with eyeglasses. My contacts and I discussed the need of eyeglasses, but within the context of extreme poverty, providing a home, food, and school fees were more pressing concerns for the children's parents.
As a planner, I started to think through the steps needed to fulfil this need. I began to research, dream, write, and get in touch with others, such as Seth Barnes who suggested Restoring Vision (restoringvision.org) in which I am fundraising for eyeglasses at 50 cents a pair and Tyler Malone (rtylermalone.com), a Nashville-based humanitarian and travel photographer who is as passionate about God and missions as he is about photography and media. It is through these two and over a dozen other individuals who have either shown an interest or have helped to contribute to my passion of providing eyeglasses to children in need.
My team and I are currently in the midst of designing a site and affiliated Facebook and Twitter pages, fundraising, connecting with the Kenya Initiative team, brain-storming and meeting with eye doctors and non-profit organizers, planning a test-run of fitting and giving eyeglasses to the impoverished in Nashville, and planning a logistical trip to Kenya for later this year.
We plan to take a team of volunteers in June of 2012 to Kenya to properly fit and provide eyeglasses to children in need. We are also looking at expanding Revision Eyecare to other areas throughout the world in the near future. We are still in the developmental stages of Revision Eyecare. We are looking for partners, support, and volunteers who are interested in going to Kenya with us or partnering with us Stateside. Feel free to contact me at [email protected]. We will have a site up shortly (revisioneyecare.com.)
We've seen the need, now we must respond!
Will you?
