Recycling Spectacles with Vision Aid Overseas

  As part of the St Chad's Reduce, Reuse, Recycle initiative, we now collect spectacles, which can be re-used in Third World countries. I take these glasses to one of the opticians in Headingley, which participates in the Vision Aid Overseas scheme. The spectacles are transported to Vision Aid Overseas headquarters in Crawley by a specialist optical provider (DX Network Services). Here they receive a “rough sort”, and any damaged pairs are removed. The remaining spectacles are distributed to prisons throughout the UK , where prisoners have been trained to thoroughly clean, grade and pack the items. These spectacles are then sent abroad with Vision Aid teams. Each project requires 3,000 pairs, arranged in a library of different powers. The glasses are only dispensed after a full eye examination and great care is taken to match the spectacles to the patient. Please see if you have any old pairs of glasses lying in a drawer, which could be of use to someone in the Third World . Leave them in the box at the back of church, in which old mobile phones and printer cartridges can also be deposited.

Suzanne Dalton