By FairfaxMedia
Werribee residents are being encouraged to donate their old sunnies and spectacles as part of an initiative to help people in need.
Refurbished quality spectacles are sent to men, women and children in need across the world in Africa, Europe, the Middle East, China and the Pacific as part of Lions Australia’s Recycle for Sight program.
Werribee Specsavers, in partnership with Altona North’s Queen of Peace Parish Primary School, is collecting the glasses to be repaired and sent overseas.
Store co-owner David Caldow said staff have been collecting pre-loved specs for six months and the extra help from the students is making all the difference.
“Once glasses are collected … we send them to Lions Recycle for Sight, which runs a glasses recycling facility that quality checks, cleans and categorises the glasses,” Mr Caldow said.
“If the glasses pass the quality tests, they are then distributed to people in need overseas through partnering charities and humanitarian organisations.”
Queen of Peace Parish Primary School principal Darran Gibbons said students were inspired to help after learning that there are millions of people overseas who can’t see clearly due to not having access to glasses.
Mr Gibbons said the initiative has shown students how they can “think outside the box to help someone else”.
Donations of pre-loved glasses and sunglasses can be handed in to Specsavers Werribee or at the school office.
