HISTORY

The Lions Club of Chichester began recycling in 1967, but it became a major project in 1980 when they delivered 700 specs to Missionary Optical Society in Devon for use in their clinics in Kenya and India. This soon grew and over 4 years other Lions Clubs joined in.

In 1985, The Lions Club of Chichester linked up with Le Havre Lions and Medico France, and over the following 5 years 100,000 specs, 43,000 lenses and 10,000 frames were sent to Medico France, while still delivering to Missionary Optical Society in Devon as many pairs of sorted specs as they needed.

In 1988, another outlet was established through Vision Aid Overseas, and in 1990 Boots the Chemist and Help the Aged joined in a national campaign which produced 460,000 pairs of specs in six months. Once sorted they went to places such as Cameroon, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Sri Lanka, India, Zanzibar, Jamaica, Bolivia and Brazil.

Today the Lions Club of Chichester receives used specs from Lions Clubs throughout the UK. Each year over 300,000 pairs of spectacles are sent to Medico France. Through Chichester, the UK Lions Clubs provide more than 50% of the spectacles processed by Medico France – more than any other national group including France itself.

PROJECT

Aberdeen Lions Club has been collecting used spectacles from opticians since 2005. To date tens of thousands of pairs of spectacles have been collected, averaging 1,000 per month. The club has a designated collector who collects, sorts and counts the specs into boxes and sends to Chichester.

We are indebted to participating opticians of Aberdeen and the surrounding area who provide collection boxes within their outlets. Without their help this project would not be the success in improving the eyesight in the developing world

‘Changing Lives, One Pair at a Time’