Local Lions help give gift of vision in Mexico

Program hooks up with Morden volunteers in Mexican community

Updated 2 months ago

Two Mordenites doing volunteer work in Mexico have teamed up with the Morden Lions Club to give deserving youth there the gift of clear vision.

The connection came about through David and Ruth Wiens. They have been volunteering with an agency called Atzin and have been assisting in the village of Tlamacazapa, Mexico, since last January.

One of the programs that Ruth was helping with was improving literacy for the village, and she noticed one day almost no one wore glasses. And even more concerning was that many of the students were dropping out of the reading programs.

She remembered that the Morden Lions had an eyeglass recycling program and contacted a Lions member for information and help.

Club member Rob Lawrence said they were happy to help and contacted the Lions Eye Bank of Manitoba & NW Ontario based in Winnipeg. From there, they were put in touch with CLERC - Canadian Lions Eyeglasses Recycling Center in Calgary.

Almost immediately, 105 pairs of recycled eyeglasses, were delivered to Atzin and then to the waiting students in Mexico.

"Would you believe, that it only took five days, after the initial contact, to have these eyeglasses on the way to Mexico," said Lawrence, who noted this is a free service from the Canadian Lions clubs.

The Morden Lions have been serving the community of Morden for the past 40 years, and their legacy of community involvement includes eyeglass recycling collection boxes at Focal Point Vision Care and the Morden Library to collect used eyeglasses from the community.

From 2008 to date, Morden residents have donated 5,094 pairs. These eyeglasses are then shipped to CLERC, where they are sorted, repaired and made ready to be reused where ever they are needed.

"So many thanks to the residents of Morden for continuing to recycle your used eyeglasses," said Lawrence. "They will be used again - somewhere, sometime by someone special."

GET INVOLVED

The Morden Lions Club is proud of the past 40 years of community service in Morden and look forward to the future community service requirements of Morden.

New club members will be needed to ensure these future community projects are achieved, stated Lawrence.

Call club president Stan Brunn at 822 5311 for meeting times and location.

And David and Ruth Wiens continue as volunteers with Atzin in Tlamacazapa.

Atzin is a nonprofit organization that has been working in Tlamacazapa since early 1997.

It started by talking with women about what they needed to improve their lives. A small international team of volunteers slowly began working with villagers to examine and resolve the many problems in Tlamacazapa.

The three main focus areas of this mission are self sufficiency, rebuilding community and strenthening self.

More info on this project is available on the Atzin website at www.atzin.org/en/home.html.

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