Last week the Club hosted John and Fiona Miles who came to talk to us about Global Site Solutions (formally the Guilford Rotary Eye Project), a Rotary charity set up 50 years ago to support the developing world through, amongst other projects, eye care hospitals.
Millions of people suffer from curable eye conditions that have can have significant effects on their quality of life and ability to work or look after their dependents. Global Site Solutions identifies areas with a need and the local resources required before facilitating the creation of a sustainable eye hospital.
The hospital is governed by a Trust of Rotarians who first identify, or commission the construction of, a suitable building. Eye surgeons are sourced who will carry out free operations in return for the use of the hospitals facilities for their own private clinics.
Income is generated by operating a Pharmacy and Opticians in the same building as well as offering health checks to private customers, which is in demand in developing countries where the conditions are less sanitary.
The initial funding is largely sourced through Rotary Clubs, amplified by Rotary Grants to raise the $90k typically required to equip a new hospital. The project aims to have capacity for 200,000 cataract operations a year and create twenty new hospitals by 2030. If you’d like to contribute, find out more at www.globalsightsolutions.org