Eye Institute is formalising its social endeavours under a new community trust, which initially will be focused on providing assistance to Auckland-based families by funding up to 400 eye examinations and providing subsidies of up to $250 towards glasses over the next 12 months.
The new community trust will officially be launched at the Eye Institute’s next seminar, after work on 22 May at the Ellerslie Event Centre in Auckland, by trust co-chairs, and Eye Institute ophthalmologists, Professor Helen Danesh-Meyer and Dr Shanu Subbiah.
“Eye Institute and its doctors have been involved in many levels of community service for a long time. The Eye Institute Community Trust is a way of framing our activities as well as providing us with the opportunity to expand our community service in a more structured manner,” explains Prof Danesh-Meyer. “At this stage, our focus is on our Auckland community. There is so much that can be done right in our own backyards, so this is where we are launching this new initiative.”
Dr Subbiah says the idea to focus the trust’s first efforts on children came from Wellington-based optometrist Ravi Dass who he met last year on a Voluntary Ophthalmic Services Overseas (VOSO) trip to Fiji. Dass, together with his wife Stephanie Hill, take a more philanthropic approach to business, donating a pair of glasses to kids in need from their practice, Mr Foureyes, every time a patient buys a pair of glasses.
“I had always assumed, incorrectly, that eyecare for children in New Zealand was comprehensively covered by the health boards,” said Dr Subbiah, who undertook a lot of his training in the UK where children’s eye care is covered under the National Health Service. After speaking to Greenlane’s orthoptic department, he says he realised that a lot of children who require glasses don’t have them because of the cost, especially those who were at high risk of visual loss from amblyopia, so it seemed like the ideal starting point for the trust’s work.
