AN OPTOMETRIST from Acomb has flown out to Tanzania with 850 pairs of spectacles to help restore the sight of impoverished local people.
Ruth Perrott is paying her 12th annual visit to Africa to take part in projects backed by Rotarians, having previously travelled to countries including The Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, Malawi and most recently Senegal.
She was originally planning to go back to Senegal this year but switched to Tanzania because of the proximity of the recent Ebola virus outbreak to the Casamance area in the far south of Senegal.
She now plans to go back there next February.
A spokesman said there was a particular need to help a large Albino population in Tanzania who, beside suffering with eye and skin conditions, also experienced hostility and persecution.
Unwanted spectacles were donated to Ruth’s business, VisionCare Optometry, in Acomb, and also through Rotary Clubs, Lions, pharmacies and church groups.
They were then sorted, washed, dried, measured and labelled by members of Rotary York Ainsty who formed a team of dedicated ‘specsorters,’ discarding spectacles with scratched lenses.
After flying out to Mwanza in Tanzania, Ruth met up with a team of Rotarian doctors and medical workers organised by Rotary Mirfield in West Yorkshire.
The team is currently working on Ukerewe, the largest inhabited island on Lake Victoria and three and a half hours by ferry from the mainland town of Mwanza.
Its 350,000 inhabitants have limited contact with the mainland and average income is less than £1 a day, mostly from farming and fishing.
Rotary Mirfield set up a micro-credit programme on the island three years ago which is helping 18 families, mostly women, and has also refurbished the local hospital operating theatre, provided a waiting hostel for pregnant women, supplied educational materials to several schools, improved water supplies and built a playground.
• Anyone with spectacles that are no longer required is asked to deliver them to Visioncare in York Road, Acomb, for possible use in next year’s project.
For more information about Rotary, email rcyorkainsty@gmail.com