June 22, 2011

8 Million Patients and Counting!

By kboyle

8 Million.  Today in The Gambia OneSight helped it’s 8 Millionth patient!.  For perspective, the population of The Gambia is 1.7Million - in 20+ years OneSight has helped the equivalent of the entire Gambian population 5 times over.   How amazing is that?!?

Her name is Marokey.  She is a 35 year old mother of 4 who had never worn glasses.  She had trouble seeing people at a distance and doing her everyday work like gardening, cooking and sewing.  After receiving her glasses she commented that she is so happy and grateful; she can see things clearly and can do things on her own.  She was able to thread a needle - something she had not been able to do in years.  In addition to Marokey, her 10 year old son also received a pair of glasses so that he can see better in school.  

So, Marokey is the 8 millionth patient helped by OneSight.  But guess what?  Even more amazing things happened in the Gambia today, and in Ghana where we have another clinic in process – OneSight helped patient number 8,000,0001, 8,000,0002, 8,000,003,……the giving continues and the sky is the limit!  So from the Doctors and Associates that are a part of Team Gambia - we had a an incredibly exciting day and we are truly humbled by the magnitude of what 8,000,000 means to OneSight and Luxottica.  Please continue to follow us as we help even more people during our next next 6 clinic days.

4 Comments

  1. Barb Hiltabidel says:

    Congratulations OneSight for helping over 8 million people with the gift of sight! Best wishes to Team Gambia for continued success with your clinics! And to my husband, Arnie, I hope we get to speak soon. Sorry the internet connection there is poor. Take care all!

    Posted on Wed Jun 22, 2011 7:52 pm EST

  2. Amanda says:

    This is so exciting! Thank you for sharing and we look forward to hearing more about those helped in The Gambia.

    Posted on Thu Jun 23, 2011 7:21 am EST

  3. Wayne Murray says: says:

    The Gambia is an Amazing place!

    I finally made it to The Gambia after flights were delayed due to storms in Newark, New Jersey.
    The plane got diverted to Rochester, New York and waited out the storm.  They let us fly back to Newark two hours after our team was scheduled to leave for The Gambia.  I thought everyone had gone
    and I was planning to travel on to Brussels and The Gambia alone.  Some of my team were surprisingly still in Newark; as their flight out was cancelled as well.  My luggage didn’t make it to The Gambia when I did; but I received it the following day.  We all finally got united here in The Gambia.

    Every day that I am here I feel so fortunate for two reasons.  One to be able to live in a country that has such a high quality of life.  Secondly to have the opportunity to help Onesight give the gift of sight to those who struggle everyday just to survive; not being able to afford the luxury of eyewear.

    Yesterday we had the opportunity to serve the 8 millionth patient since the Onesight missions were 1st launched.  The happy recipient of eyewear for the first time in her life, was the mother of four.  Her husband, herself and 4 children live in very tiny dwelling of about 300 sq. ft., and only one bed. Her quality of life will improve now with the ability to see clearly for the first time in her life.

    The Gambia is a facinating place with warm, friendly people, lots of heat, humidity and seafood.  My new friends on Team Gambia are a great bunch of fun loving, hard working people.  It’s a blast!

    See you all soon,
    Wayne

    Posted on Thu Jun 23, 2011 5:08 pm EST

  4. Lan says:

    Congrats on being able to hit such amazing milestones. Great big hug goes out to Angela Auty :) Enjoy your trip and make sure you take a lot of pictures. We are so proud of you.

    We miss you from your SGH CANADA FAMILY!!!

    Posted on Fri Jun 24, 2011 2:18 pm EST

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