Up in the Himalayan mountains, at an altitude of 2,500 to 5,000 meters, people are exposed to intense sunlight – and thus harmful UV rays – year round. Here, about 90% of the population suffers from eye damage and serious eye diseases – and it could be so easy to provide protection.
A fact that inspired Juergen Altmann, owner of the AROMA Kaffeebar in Munich to launch?Shades of Love – The Himalayan Eyewear Project. The mission is to collect new or used sunglasses and to spread them among the people, even in the most remote mountain regions. All the sunglasses that we collect are guaranteed to have a UV protection of 300/400 and each pair is professionally cleaned before being distributed.
Shades of Love started in the Ladakh region of northern India where we have been supported from the Tibetan Health Care Center in Choglamsar, near the city of Leh. www.men-tsee-khang.org The center handles the registration and distribution of our eyewear into the remote areas of Ladakh. It is also the sister organization of the Department of Health in Dharamsala, a non-profit organization of the Dalai Lama. www.tibet.net/health/
At Shades of Love, we see ourselves as a Himalayan project and we are pleased to be growing beyond Ladakh. We are currently building a network in Nepal where we greatly benefit from the assistance of the Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology in Kathmandu. www.tilganga.org
The Eye Hospital is the implementing body of the Nepal Eye Program. It conducts research and provides eye care, treatments and surgeries to the underprivileged. With their support we can take our glasses to the most remote regions of the Himalayas.
If you would like to donate sunglasses, we have several locations where you can drop them off. Please visit our page for the collection points to find a collection point near you or send them directly to the AROMA Kaffeebar in Munich.
Please like us on Facebook and tell your friends and family about this project. The more people who like us, the more people in the Himalayas will enjoy healthy eyesight.
Thank you so much !
