From Rugby to communities thousands of miles away
Have you ever dropped an old pair of spectacles into one of our collection bins and wondered what happens to them next?
Since September 2020, Rugby Rokeby Lions Club has been collecting unwanted spectacles donated by people across our local community.
What started with collection points in Rugby has grown considerably — and more than 80,000 pairs of spectacles have now passed through our hands.
It starts with you
Our familiar collection bins can be found at opticians and other locations across Rugby and the surrounding area.
Every month, members of Rugby Rokeby Lions collect the donated spectacles and bring them together. And, as these photographs show, they soon mount up!
Each pair is checked, counted, boxed and labelled ready for the next stage of its journey.
Several times each year, we transport large consignments to Lions, where the spectacles can be sorted and distributed onwards to communities where they are needed.
But some of your spectacles make a very special journey…
When Lion Saudagar joined Rugby Rokeby Lions, we began supporting his work with the City Centre Eye Hospital in Phillaur, India.
Since then, we have supplied approximately 10,000 pairs of donated spectacles to support its work.
Our support has extended beyond spectacles. We have also provided eye-care drops for mobile clinics, with each phial carrying a label showing that it was donated by Rugby Rokeby Lions Club.
And there was another ambitious project we were delighted to support…
Taking eye care to the people
A bus was converted into a Mobile Eye Screening Unit, allowing the hospital team to take eye examinations and eye care directly into communities.
Instead of people having to travel to the hospital, the clinic can travel to them.
And this is what that looks like in practice…
For us, that photograph tells an important part of the story.
Something as simple as donating an unwanted pair of spectacles here in Rugby can become part of a much bigger effort to provide eye care to people thousands of miles away.
80,000 pairs — and counting
None of this would happen without the extraordinary support of our local community, the opticians and organisations that host our collection points, and everyone who chooses to donate their old spectacles rather than throw them away.
So, when it's time for your next pair of glasses, please don't leave the old ones forgotten in a drawer.
Donate them to Rugby Rokeby Lions.
You may have finished with them.
Their journey may only just be beginning.