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Eyecare major Lawrence & Mayo has taken up the task of donating used spectacles and sunglasses to the poor and blind people.

It has joined hands with Sightsavers in India which supports local partners to become self-sufficient in providing eye care services and has brought eye-care to some of the least-served areas of the country.

According to Vivek Mendonsa, director, marketing of Lawrence & Mayo, "We wanted our corporate social responsibility to focus on eyecare as that goes with our brand image. We, therefore, joined hands with Sightsavers in India to donate spectacles and sunglasses to poor people who have eyesight problems or are blind."

According to Mendonsa, the company has donated around 6,500 sunglasses and spectacles since 2002, when it initiated this project.

According to Ramjish Kattady, the regional information and liaison officer of Sightsavers, refractive error is a major cause of blindness in children and the second major cause in adults.

But this could easily be tackled with a pair of glasses. However, many tend to stay blind or put up with poor eyesight due to non-affordability.

"Sightsavers' partnership with Lawrence & Mayo is helping several people to have their vision restored," said Kattady.

L&M collects old eyewear from its 44 showrooms across the country through an exchange offer from its customers. These eyewear collected are donated to Sightsavers International to be distributed free-of-cost to the needy patients through its network of partners.

Currently Sightsavers has a presence in 18 states in India and in 33 countries globally. Over the years in India, they have helped in the treatment of over 28 million people and rehabilitated over 50,000 irreversibly blind persons.

"We have also revolutionised the affordability of cataract surgery in the developing world with the establishment of a unit in India to produce high-quality, low-cost plastic lenses. In addition, several thousands of irreversibly blind people have received rehabilitation and educational support to enable them to lead lives of independence and dignity. Our beneficiaries are spread across the country in the 18 states where we have our projects," Kattady said.

According to Kattady, every 5 seconds, a person in the world goes blind and a child goes blind every minute. Although 75 per cent of all blindness is curable, 90 per cent of children who are blind do not go to school.

To add to this, India has one-fourth of the world's reported 161 million blind and severely visually impaired.

Sightsavers currently works with over 90 partners that include medical, non-government, government, community organisations, centre of excellence and membership organisations.

Sightsavers also works in coordination with the NPCB, RCI and also with the international movement such as Vision 2020, Global Campaign on Education, EFAVI etc.