A very urgent appeal
Dear Friends.
I never ask for charity money because I know how overwhelmed we are by extra information and for people asking for money etc. I have witnessed the work of this charity from the beginning and I can assure you that ALL the money raised goes towards curing the blind. Please send what you can and ask your friends the same thing; instead of getting one Christmas present this year, ask them to use that money to change somebody else’s life, I can assure you this will be one of the best investments you will ever make.
THREE MINUTES OF YOUR LIFE…..
How many times have you heard/seen an appeal like this?
“Your donation of £15 will cure another blind person in India”.
How many times have you not responded because of a suspicion that your £15 would not in fact do this?
You are right to be suspicious. Your £15 can only be curing a blind person if all that money goes to the hospital incurring the surgical costs for that operation. Your £15 can only be curing a blind person if that person is actually blind.
The man in this picture is 32year-old Dr.Shiva, an eye surgeon living in the state of Orissa in India. The woman is ophthalmologist Dr.Lucy Mathen from the London-based charity Second Sight. The boys are 9year-old Subala Suna and 12year-old Ranjit Bariha. Both were blind and had their sight restored by cataract surgery. Earlier this year, Lucy met Dr.Shiva and discovered that:
He had single-handedly cured 6,000 blind people in the past year
He had offered all the surgery free of charge
He took no salary and sleeps on the floor of his office
He works from 4.30am till midnight most days
Why?
Because the state of Orissa has at least half a million people unnecessarily blind from cataract. And he can restore sight in just three minutes (perhaps five minutes when it comes to children like the two in this picture).
Shiva comes from a poor family himself. So he has dedicated his life as an ophthalmologist to eradicating blindness from his home state…an area where up to half the population lives on less than 15pence a day. With his surgical skills he could be earning a fortune in one of India’s wealthy cities (where 80 per cent of eye surgeons work in private practice).
Second Sight seeks out doctors like Dr.Shiva who are actually curing the blind.
Second Sight’s own experienced volunteer surgeons also work alongside teams like Dr.Shiva’s and cure the blind themselves.
Second Sight does not spend one penny of donated money on office costs. Second Sight is run by volunteers. So
Just £12.50 donated each month would cure a blind person in India. A monthly direct debit for a year would mean 12 people would regain their sight because of you.
This should have taken around three minutes to read (the time it takes Shiva to do a cataract operation). If you are convinced, why not try the Three Minute Appeal on just five friends? www.secondsight.org.uk lucymathen@yahoo.com