A vision to change lives

Residents in the PNG province of East New Britain will have improved vision after a donation of glasses and optical equipment from Cairns.

RESIDENTS in the Papua New Guinea province of East New Britain will have much improved vision after a donation of glasses and optical equipment from Cairns.

The East New Britain Group of North Queensland has spent the past two years working on a small charity project for an NGO, two hospitals and a school in East New Britain.

“Being a small group, the project began in 2015 and we have been able to assemble a small number of items for a small group of our members to take over tomorrow and deliver them on Monday and Tuesday,” said chairwoman Rosie Omundsen.

She said the group was grateful for the support it received from people in Cairns when it put out a call for unwanted spectacles to be donated for East New Britain.

“These will go to Callan Services, a non-government organisation that runs an optical services centre out of Vunapope,” Ms Omundsen said.

“The people of Cairns have been wonderful donating their old glasses towards this project and we are grateful to Community Radio 89.1 for helping us with a collection box at their reception. We also want to acknowledge the help of Specsavers, who came forward with two boxes of old glasses towards the collection.”

Ms Omundsen said the group held a raffle in 2015 and a high tea in 2016 to buy a hand edger – a piece of equipment for grinding and cutting lenses – together with lenses of varying strengths for Callan Services.

It also sought donations of old glasses from the community.

“The Callan centre is one of the vital public services forced to relocate elsewhere by the volcanic eruptions (of Mount Tavurvur and Mount Vulcan) on September 19, 1994 and so their operation out of Vunapope remains on the bare minimum of essential resources,” Ms Omundsen said.

She is one of the team of six travelling to East New Britain tomorrow.

“The group will be delivering their gifts on Monday and it is our hope that as many people as possible will benefit from getting a new pair of glasses and improved vision.

“Many people are assuming that the continuous fall of volcanic ash could be affecting people’s fading visions, though this has not been proven.”