Recently, Watford-based online glasses retailer, Glasses On Spec , reached out to support struggling African communities where HIV infects 40 to 60 percent of people. One of its directors, William Luff, ran the world's oldest and largest ultramarathon, the 90 km Comrades Marathon in South Africa in May 2016, to raise funds for a local charitable outfit, the Hillcrest AIDS Centre Trust, tasked with tackling the disease.
The Trust, founded in 1990, is dedicated to fighting the HIV pandemic through promoting HIV prevention, providing income to affected families, and offering support groups to grandparents who have to look after their orphaned grandchildren.
Part of that support involves providing grandparents with the things that they need. Take glasses, for example. Glasses in South Africa cost roughly the same as they do in the UK, but the average wage in many townships is only £150 a month, meaning some grandparents supporting children are unable to afford to buy their own glasses. As part Glasses On Spec’s mission to make the lives of people living in these communities better, Luff donated more than 150 pairs of spectacles to the charity to help "grannies in need."
In June, the Hillcrest Aids Centre Trust sent a letter to Glasses On Spec, thanking Will Luff for his campaign to supply glasses to the elderly. “We are so grateful and proud,” the letter reads, “of Will for his extraordinary achievements in not only getting these much needed pairs of glasses for our grannies, but in completing this year’s Comrades Marathon.”
But, as the organisation points out, the fight to rid South Africa of AIDS is far from over. Although mother to child transmission has fallen to just two percent, “there are still roughly 500,000 new HIV infections in South Africa every year and … currently 2.5 million children orphaned due to HIV/AIDS”. It's “thanks to the support of people like Will,” the letter continues, “and companies like Glasses On Spec, [that] we are able to continue contributing to this fight.”
Luff is already preparing to run the Comrades Marathon again in 2017 and will return to donate more glasses to "grannies in need” next June.
Glassesonspec Adding Moda’s ECO Brand
As part of the company’s charitable drive, Glasses On Spec is adding Modo's ECO brand of environmentally sustainable glasses to it's range this October. Not only is ECO the only eyewear brand made of 95% recycled content, but it also empowers customers to reuse it’s packaging and donate their unwanted eyewear to people in need. Given its other charitable activities, it should come as no surprise that Glasses On Spec is now working with ECO, a company which has so far provided the gift of sight to over 314 million adults and children worldwide. Glasses On Spec currently sells a range of ECO frames through its website and plants a tree for every ECO frame sold.
Alessandro Lanaro, CEO at Modo says that “adding sustainability and social responsibility to a great collection like ECO was certainly a winning combination. We are humbled by the reception in the marketplace and we are proud of our achievements, notably planting over 1.4 million trees! There is a great journey in front of us and we are committed to keep on going!”
Glasses On Spec provides prescription glasses, prescription sunglasses, and replacement lenses for existing frames.
Contact:
William Luff
Company: Glasses On Spec
Address: Unit 7, Olds Close, Olds Approach, Watford, Hertfordshire, WD18 9RU, UK
Telephone: 0800 028 9550
Email: info@glassesonspec.co.uk
Website: www.glassesonspec.co.uk
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