Collecting and Recycling Used Spectacles

 THE SPECSORT PROJECT

Widnes Rotary have collected used spectacles for many a year, passing them on locally to be recycled, but then Covid meant we struggled to find somewhere they could be recycled.  

We then came across the SpecSort project a couple of years ago which was first co-ordinated by Ruth and Colin Perrott, of Rotary York Ainsty more than 25 years ago.   * Optometrist Ruth Perrott, MBE, first visited Cameroon in 1991 in support of (then) Prince Charles' Operation Raleigh.  Since then Ruth, who specialises in neuro-developmental optometry, assessing and treating children, teens and adults with reading issues, and also patients with mild traumatic brain injury or strokes, has visited the African continent 16 times, providing spectacles to poor rural communities. The countries visited include Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Malawi, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Tanzania.

The project was supported by Rotary York Ainsty, who became involved in late 1991, meaurising and assembling quality controlled spectacle libraries, which Ruth and her team then took with them when they visited Africa. However, since COVID the spectacle libraries are now airfreighted to local charities who provide sight tests, to ensure the specs delivered to each person are optically correct and are the right size and fit. 

Since Widnes Rotary's involvement with York Ainsty Rotary, we have collected 3,000 pairs of spectacles and now have collection boxes in Widnes Opticians as follows:-

Specsavers

Vision Express

Merton Beck

This not only helps those who are in desperate need of glasses in Africa, but it saves the environment too!

So if you have any glasses you can donate, please do so!

*Ruth was awarded her MBE by Prince William in 2021 for services to people with sight impairment in Africa.  

Our Congratulations Ruth - Service Above Self at it's very best !