Between 4th November 2015 and 3rd February 2016, all donations to ORBIS’s sight-saving work in Zambia (including the Zambezi Project) will be DOUBLED. Not only will all UK donations be matched by the government, but donations will also be eligible for Gift Aid, so £1 immediately turns into £2.25, helping us to save the sight of even more children.

It is estimated that approximately 145,000 people are suffering unnecessarily from blindness in Zambia. 

With just 15 ophthalmologists in the whole of Zambia, for a population of 14 million, compared to over 3,000 in the UK, there is a severe shortage of eye health professionals. Child eye health workers are even more scarce. Specialised paediatric services were virtually non-existent before Orbis’s intervention in 2011 when they established Zambia’s first and only children’s eye care centre at Kitwe Eye Annexe in the Copperbelt province.

I thought then – and I think now – that, if I could play a part in saving or restoring the sight of just ONE person, young or old, it would be the best thing that I have ever done in my whole life.

Together with Orbis UK, we formed the “Zambezi Project” as a dedicated part of their extensive work in Zambia.

So, with the background to Rocksure’s corporate sponsorship of ORBIS UK’s Zambezi Project and I am pleased to say that we have succeeded in raising almost £30,000 during the past 2 years to October 2015.

Our goal is to increase this to £50,000 by the end of 2015 and this is being greatly helped by an agreement between the UK’s Department of International Development (DFID) and ORBIS UK, under which, between 4th November 2015 and 3rd February 2016, all donation’s to ORBIS’s sight-saving work in Zambia (including the Zambezi Project) will be DOUBLED. Not only will all UK donations be matched by the government, but donations will also be eligible for Gift Aid, so £1 immediately turns into £2.25, helping us to save the sight of even more children.

If you are attracted by the idea of giving this project your support, you will want to know that, as a registered UK charity, all tax benefits apply; as important, perhaps, ORBIS has ensured that 90% of all money donated is guaranteed to go directly to the project without further deductions for administration or fundraising.