THIS PRESENTATION TELLS THE STORY THAT I CANNOT PUT IN WORDS. -Lon Penna, Club Secretary    https://360.articulate.com/review/content/bf55b42a-90b8-4ef4-86dc-719e67b8b4b9/review

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Imagine an eye doctor trained in NYC working full-time in Haiti. It's real.

Dr. Anshu Chandra went to Haiti in 2010 to help people in need. She was shocked by the dire need so close to home. Children and adults were going unnecessarily blind.

In 2015, she moved to Haiti to establish a full-time eye clinic in a local hospital in Fond-des-Blancs. She also began training local people to provide eye care, helping to build local capacity so that eye care could continue in the community.

Since then, the clinic has provided more than 143,000 FREE EYE EXAMS and more than 7,300 advanced procedures.  The eyeglasses are provided by THE LIONs CLUBS.

NOW THERE IS A PROBLEM.   The clinic has outgrown its space. Cataract surgery had to be stopped, and many other programs could not be started.  

Now the hospital needs the space where the clinic is located, so the clinic must move. There are no other suitable, safe buildings.

The land has been purchased, the equipment is in place, and plans are underway for a new hurricane-proof and earthquake-proof facility.

WE NEED YOUR HELP TO BUILD IT AND KEEP THIS EYE CARE GOING.

GREAT NEWS: A Rotary Arch Klumph Society member has pledged up to $250,000 to help.   IT IS A MATCH.  Every dollar raised for this project by November 30, 2026, will be matched dollar-for-dollar up to $250,000.

NISKAYUNA ROTARY IS ASKING OTHER ROTARY CLUBS TO HELP US RAISE THE MATCH.

WE ARE ALSO ASKING ORGANIZATIONS, BUSINESSES, AND INDIVIDUALS TO JOIN US.

VIDEO SHORTS: See the work for yourself:

3-min: Overview, Need for a New Clinic, and Endorsements from Fellow Doctors:
https://youtu.be/jy4cGAsIjz4

1-min: A 1-minute Walk Inside Our Haiti Clinic:
https://youtu.be/vcwVGbJZ6rM

1-min: A Patient's Story:
https://youtu.be/KvA19qpXXso

3-min: Dr. Kaw's Endorsement:
https://youtu.be/bsOLJbqLqV8

"Providing Eyeglasses is one of the most cost-effective ways of addressing poverty." 

HOW YOU CAN HELP:

1. CONTRIBUTE TO REACH THE MATCH

Your club, organization, business, or individual donation can help us reach the $250,000 match. 
  - To contribute directly, checks can be mailed to Global Eye Project, 25 Garling Drive Latham, NY 12110, USA.  To transfer funds digitally, visit GlobalEyeProject.com.    For assistance contact Dr. Chandra at +1-518-334-4068,  Anshu.Haiti@gmail.com or email our officers at NiskyRotary@gmail.com with "FOR ANSHU re. HAITI EYE CLINIC" in the subject line. THANKS SO MUCH!
  - To contribute via Niskayuna Rotary Club, checks can be mailed to Jeanne Sosnow, Treasurer; 37 Dublin Drive, Niskayuna, NY 12309 USA.  To determine the best way to transfer funds digitally, please email our officers at NiskyRotary@gmail.com with "FOR JEANNE re. HAITI EYE CLINIC" in the subject line.   THANKS SO MUCH!

2. HELP FUNDRAISE

Share the Story with Friends, Family, & Others: Forward this page and the short videos to people you know. Tell them about the eye clinic in Haiti and the $250,000 matching opportunity. Ask 10 people to give $50, or whatever they can.

Reach out to organizations you know: Your church, school, workplace, professional association, civic group, or local service club may be willing to help.

Ask a local business to help. They might make a donation, match donations, sponsor a fundraiser, or hold a special fundraising event.

Host a Fundraiser for Haiti. It could be a dinner, neighborhood gathering, golf outing, or almost anything that brings people together.

3. SCHEDULE A SPEAKER

Dr. Anshu Chandra would be glad to speak to your club or organization virtually over Zoom. Contact Dr. Chandra at +1-518-334-4068 or Anshu.Haiti@gmail.com. Or call Niskayuna Rotary Secretary Lon Penna at 518-312-6588.

4. DONATE YOUR EXPERTISE

Architects, engineers, contractors, surveyors, and other professionals may be able to help with the design and construction of the new facility.

Companies can also help by donating materials and equipment such as generators, batteries, inverters, solar panels, water-well supplies, and other items needed for the new facility.

With the dollar-for-dollar match, your effort can go twice as far.

Her name is Dr. Anshu Chandra.  She is a wisp of a girl.    She eats like a bird.  She doesn’t buy clothes.  She doesn’t buy makeup.   When she is back in the USA visiting her family, she gets as many part time jobs as she can.  Everything she earns gets poured back into help pay the $50,000 annual operating expenses for the clinic she created in Haiti.   Patients come from miles around.  The clinic serves 100 patients a day!  Eyecare is free, except eyeglasses are $2, for those who can afford it.  The eyeglasses are gifted by the Lions Clubs.

“PROVIDING EYEGLASSES IS ONE OF THE MOST COST EFFECTIVE WAYS OF ADDRESSING POVERTY.”

         - Niskayuna Rotarian Dr. Robert “Rob” Fox.

Dr. Anshu Chandra's clinic is located in the basement of a hospital.  Here, she trained locals to become eye professionals, providing eye exams, and identifying eye diseases..  Dr. Chandra’s clinic performs cataract surgeries, preventing blindness.   But her team also prevents blindness in premature babies.  Her staff inspects the eyes of premature babies to identify the babies who, without treatment, would be destined for a life of blindness.  

SAFE LOCATION:  Yes, the armed gangs are burning tires in the streets and shooting at airplanes in the capital city of Port-au-Prince.   But life goes on in much of the rest of Haiti.  Better still, Dr. Chandra’s clinic is located in Fond-des-Blancs, a remote mountainous area with only one access road.  The police, who have family to protect, prevent any trouble makers from entering.

HOW WE MET:   We met Dr. Chandra twice – both times by accident.  The first time was when she was picking up $10 refurbished laptops from ComputerRehab.org.  We told Dr. Chandra how Niskayuna Rotarians filled our laptops with K-12 educational software and provided them to classrooms and to students who lacked Internet access.   Dr. Chandra wanted to educate the school children who played around her clinic.  But it needed to be in French.   So, the son of Niskayuna Rotarian Elizabeth Zahdan downloaded French educational materials onto Dr. Chandra’s laptops.  Free downloadable educational materials can be found in dozens of languages at LearningEquality.org.  [By the way, Elizabeth’s son made the newspapers when he graduated with a Master's Degree at age 19!]

The second time we met Dr. Chandra was years later, when Rotarians Helen and Lon Penna were attending a presentation on Polio hosted by the Rotterdam-Sunrise Rotary Club.  At the meeting, a woman asked if we knew of any way to ship materials to Haiti, now that Port-au- Prince was in the hands of armed gangs.  So, we reached out to our long-ago friend Dr. Chandra, and yes, she arranges for the safe passage for shipping containers filled with equipment and eyeglasses to enter Haiti.  And yes, we can add humanitarian supplies, like MoonCatcher Kits, onto her shipment.