Heather and Iain's iCare trip to Jamaica
Iain McLaren is raising money for Great Shape Inc
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In rural Jamaica there are no public health optometrists and only two public health ophthalmologists for over 1/2 a million people. 43% of Jamaicans have never seen an optometrist in their lifetime. The World Health Organisation found that up to 75% of blindness worldwide is preventable, with 60% of cases of blindness in 1996 due to either refractive error or cataracts; which means it could be solved by a pair of glasses or a 30 minute operation.
Great Shape Inc. is an American charity founded in 1988
after Hurricane Gilbert decimated Jamaica. It is an organisation of
international social services working with community leaders, professional organisations and schools to provide dental care, literacy and computer training and eye care to the Caribbean. It aims to equip and empower Caribbean children and their families with much needed health care and education. The iCare initiative started in 2009 and in that time has served more than 29,000 Jamaicans, providing sight tests and referrals for simple operations for rural Jamaicans along with tests for high blood pressure and diabetes.
A word from Heather:
I come from a family of optometrists or, as I used to think of us, sight healers. Everyone deserves the gift of sight. I have seen the impact poor vision can have on a person's life and their livelihood. People are living disabled just due to lack of access to affordable eye care services.
Help Iain and I make a difference. Donate and allow us to give the gift of sight and change lives….
And from Iain:
I love the Caribbean and the people there. For us in the UK a pair of glasses is a simple thing but without public healthcare they are out of the reach of many in Jamaica. I want to help change that and really help people.
Iain and I have been working together as optometrists for
just under 2 years in the South Wales area. We are looking forward to flying out at the end of October and helping provide eye care as part of a team of health care professionals to those in need. It will be a difficult week with the project expecting to test over 1500 patients but it will be highly rewarding and allow us to really make a difference to people’s lives. Please donate and help us support this amazing charity as we aim to transform access to eye care, fight to prevent avoidable blindness and provide a sustainable solution to visual disability in lesser developed communities of Jamaica. The donations go towards new equipment, eye exams, prescription glasses, health screenings, sunglasses and cataract surgery.
We will be doing various events throughout the run-up to help raise money, all of which will be posted on here.
Please, please help us make a difference.
Heather and Iain
In Jamaica, there is a saying “One-One Cocoa full de basket,” which simply means in Jamaican Patois, that if everyone puts a little in, the basket will be full.
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