Lunch time meeting - ZOOM Meeting our speaker this week is Alun Morgan Alloa Rotary Club speaking about a Global sight solutions project

On Thursday 12th November 2020 President Geoff Sampson welcomed 17 Club Rotarians and guest speaker Rotarian Alun Morgan to this lunch time meeting held by ZOOM.

Four Rotarians apologised for non-attendance.

Our speaker this week was Rotarian Alun Morgan from the Rotary Club of Alloa talking about the Global Sight Solutions (GSS), a Rotary Project founded in 1998 by Rotarian Sam Das, an eye surgeon, with the ambition to restore the sight of 1,000,000 people! District 1010 has it in its power to give thousands of children and adults their sight by the simple act of a small donation. If every club gives a small amount Global Sight Solutions will build a new hospital capable of treating thousands of people every year and named “The Rotary District 1010 Eye Hospital” It is estimated that there are up to 650 million individuals worldwide who are simply too poor to access solutions to a variety of sight problems. The causes are many and varied, but there are estimated to be close to 50 million people suffering from avoidable blindness, this is Global Sight Solutions area of involvement. Most of these people require simple cataract surgery to restore their sight, an operation that can be performed with as little a donation as £5 – a small price to pay to restore sight! Global Sight Solutions forms partnerships with Rotary Clubs & their Districts abroad in areas of need who are prepared to commit to provide a building, which becomes the eye hospital, and to administer the hospital through its own legally constituted Trust. Global Sight Solutions requires all eye hospitals to achieve financial self-sustainability by deriving their own income streams from private patients, plus the establishment of pharmacies, optical shops, and wellness clinics, which are open to the public. This provides permanent, sustainable local eye hospital facilities for communities 24/7 unlike temporary camps which are very much yesterday’s solution because of the difficulties in achieving and maintaining the necessary surgical cleanliness standards required. To date Global Sight Solutions have equipped nearly 80 Rotary Eye hospitals with an annual capacity of close to 180,000 cataract operations per annum. Most of the hospitals are in India but new hospitals have recently been established in Lebanon and Bangladesh with more under review in Pakistan, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia and Ghana. Global Sight Solutions operates an equal funding partnership between itself and other donors in the areas of need and The Rotary Foundation. To surgically equip a new hospital costs around $90k. With leverage from Rotary Foundation grants, this figure can be achieved with only £12k of initial funding! There are currently 8 Rotary clubs in India in the pipeline who have committed to building new hospitals, 1 in Andhra Pradesh, 4 in Bihar, 1 in Jharkhand and 2 in West Bengal. There is no shortage of need or willing partners. If every club in District 1010 donated £135 to this most worthwhile of Rotary Charities we would be able to fully equip one of these new eye hospitals and make a real difference to those who cannot see simply because they are too poor.

The Rotary vote of thanks was given by IPP Ewen Macdonald.

The club agreed to sponsor the Project by sending £250 with some members supporting the project individually.

Leading up to Christmas the club are looking to support Fife Women’s Aid, Fife Gingerbread, Collydean Community Centre which acts as a support hub , Glenrothes Foodbank, Lesley Pantry just to name a few and are looking for many different types of donations, which could be money, foodstuffs or Christmas gifts which will be collected and distributed by the Rotarians. Please look at our website or facebook page and let us know if you can support us.

This coming week Thursday 19^th November 2020 at 1pm on ZOOM we will be given a vocational talk by new members David and Beverley Cooper on their family and business lives.

The Rotary vote of thanks will be given by Anne Sampson.

If you were interested in supporting the community and international projects get in touch by Private message on The Rotary Club of Glenrothes Facebook page. You will be made most welcome[GS1] .