…a two minute read….
It has been a busy week here at Global Vision – on two continents, and four countries.
As many of you have been following along, our Executive Director – Kevin White – is on the move once more to Namibia. The partnership spearheaded by Jen Cooper at Overlandi has turned into an intrepid mission in the northern Himba land of Namibia. The team headed out of Windhoek on Sunday and have had four solid days of clinics set up around their camping locations. As shown in the photo below, they are truly in a very remote area, hours upon hours away from the nearest towns of any noticeable size. With very limited connectivity we have not had a full update from them, but in the one phone call that we managed to have, it was reported that everyone is fairing well, enjoying the vision screening clinics and, after the fulfilling day, in awe of the Milky Way around the campfire.
And because there is much to learn of other cultures, here is just one link with basic information on the Himba culture: http://www.gateway-africa.com/tribe/himba.html
When the GV2020 team returns a more in-depth look at this project will be in our newsletter.
Our Canadian staffer, Faith Based Program Coordinator, Greg Wiens, helped to plan an Athletes in Action https://athletesinaction.org sponsored outreach in Cote D’Ivorie (the Ivory Coast) in Western Africa. They were able to send a very quick message to Greg that they have had much success with the one Vision Kit that they are using, and plan to continue the program.
Greg’s excellent partnership building, and true calling to the faith-based outreach portion of Global Vision, has been pivotal in developing projects for the near future. His first trip is this August/September and is the product of a long term friendship with Ron Ishmael. Ron, a refugee from Palestine over 20 years ago, has made a new life in Canada. He and his family are the small business owners of Ringers Pizza in the greater Saskatoon area. The trip they have planned is to the West Bank and Gaza. They will train teachers on the USee Vision Kit system, and those teachers (once outfitted with their own spectacles) will then distribute eyeglasses to Palestinian students. Those teachers will later take the USee Vision Kits to Gaza for more distribution.
Additionally they will work with the Mennonite Central Committee (Jerusalem office) to train local Christian teachers for local distributions. Later in the fall an outreach to Malawi is in the making. We’ll be sure to keep you posted on his successes with continual outreaches throughout the faith-based community worldwide.
And at our Easton Headquarters…
Our small but dedicated staff continues to work on all things non-profit management and growth: funding streams, friend-raising opportunities, solutions to large and small logistic challenges, program development with nations, as well as collaborations with organizations of all sizes. We know our work is impactful and enjoy every minute of it.
Swing by to see the USee Vision Kit and learn about ways to get involved. Thank you for your support!