Series of holiday cards to help build ORBIS Kids Sight treatment centres launched

Nov 12 2009

ORBIS Canada, a non-profit global development organization dedicated to saving sight worldwide, is launching a series of holiday cards available for purchase this season. Proceeds of these cards will be used to build ORBIS Kids Sight treatment centres in the developing world.

For this year's holiday campaign, ORBIS Canada partnered with a community art school to produce the artwork for the cards. Young artists from Beware Wet Paint Art School were tasked to express their creativity and feelings about hope and the holiday season through the cards. Each package contains 10 cards in a variety of artwork designs and will be sold for $20. To purchase a package of cards, please contact the ORBIS Canada office at 1-877-672-4722 or download an order form from www.orbiscanada.ca.

Ms. Helena Ng from Beware Wet Paint School says: "Each year, we hold a holiday themed drawing competition. Our objective is to allow children to express their creativity and happiness through art. This year, we decided to partner with ORBIS Canada and use these designs as holiday cards to help raise funds for their meaningful mission. We hope the public will order these cards and support ORBIS."

There are approximately 20 million blind and visually impaired children around the world. Over the next two years, ORBIS is committed to increasing its efforts in providing quality eye care services for blind and visually impaired children around the world. In this vein, ORBIS will utilize its resources to build 100 Kids Sight treatment centres in developing countries, where there is a pressing need for dedicated pediatric eye care services.

Childhood blindness takes a devastating toll on the economies of developing countries, as blind children are far less likely to attend school, and ultimately join the workforce or contribute to their family's income compared to their sighted peers. Approximately 30% of all global childhood blindness is caused by cataract and the vision of affected children can be restored if properly treated. Furthermore, the majority of childhood blindness occurs before the age of five and is irreversible if not diagnosed and treated early enough.