SPENDING THE DAY blindfolded was an eye-opening experience for North York resident Robyn Landau. If she was going to inspire others to support her call to action, she says, she needed to first experience what it was like to live without sight.
Landau’s team recently placed second in a contest with the goal of raising funds for a micro-surgical eye clinic in Tibet — a country with one of the highest rates of blindness in the world.
Run through a non-profit called Love in Action, in partnership with Gap Adventures and Planeterra, the challenge was designed to encourage young leaders to get involved in the cause by putting sympathy into action.
When the 22-year-old Landau and two of her classmates, Sarah State and Kaitlynn Dodge, learned about the contest, they quickly formed a group called the Real Sight Keepers. As avid travellers, the members of the trio believe it’s important to remember to look beyond their own backyards, she says.
At the beginning of the Real Sight Keepers campaign, each of the young women spent a day blindfolded.
“We wanted to know what it felt like to be blind so we could be able to communicate that to others,” Landau says.
She enlisted her mother’s help as she navigated life as a visually impaired person.
She says her loss of independence was the most difficult part of the exercise. But through it, she was able to gain a sense of the daily challenges faced by people who have gone blind.
“You really gain an admiration for them, adapting to this new barrier in their life — because it’s not easy,” says Landau.
Once they gained the ability to convey what living without vision was like, the next step was to inform others and raise money for the micro-surgical eye centre.
“Our team decided to create awareness and empathy about the cause through experience,” she says.
In keeping with this theme, they opted to host an event at O.Noir restaurant where diners are served by blind waiters in a pitch-black room. Landau says it was a great way to show donors what their contributions would help to achieve, by placing them in the dark for an evening and then leading them back into the light.
“They can experience what they’re giving back to Tibetans –—the ability to see again,” she says.
The dinner raised $1,900, adding to the $1,000 drawn in by an online raffle and about $100 drummed up at a bake sale. In total, the Real Sight Keepers brought in more than $3,000 in a matter of weeks.
The situation in Tibet is largely due to a lack of resources, say Landau. Blindness there often results from conditions — primarily cataracts — that are preventable and treatable through a half-hour procedure that costs $50.
Once built, the micro-surgical eye clinic is expected to restore the sight of roughly 200 Tibetans each year.
Not only will the project give these people the tools to do so, but it will teach local doctors how to perform the procedure, which, Landau says, is a key ingredient in making lasting change.
“These doctors can teach other doctors in the community and spread it that way, at a grassroots level,” she says.
Giving Tibetans their sight back will enable them to participate in local agriculture, she says, and, ultimately, help to promote sustainable development.
For Landau, it didn’t matter that they didn’t win the prize at the end of the contest (won by a “voluntour” trip to Peru that combines travelling and volunteering). She has accomplished what she hoped to do.
A key message of their campaign was to encourage people to come up with reasons why things can be done. Raising awareness about Tibetan blindness and inspiring others, she says, has been a reward in and of itself.
“We’re really proud of what we’ve done because we know we put our love into action in many different ways,” says Landau.
Spending the day blindfolded was an eye-opening experience for North York resident Robyn Landau. If she was going to inspire others to support her call to action, she says, she needed to first experience what it was like to live without sight.
Landau’s team recently placed second in a contest with the goal of raising funds for a micro-surgical eye clinic in Tibet — a country with one of the highest rates of blindness in the world.
Run through a non-profit called Love in Action, in partnership with Gap Adventures and Planeterra, the challenge was designed to encourage young leaders to get involved in the cause by putting sympathy into action.
When the 22-year-old Landau and two of her classmates, Sarah State and Kaitlynn Dodge, learned about the contest, they quickly formed a group called the Real Sight Keepers. As avid travellers, the members of the trio believe it’s important to remember to look beyond their own backyards, she says.
At the beginning of the Real Sight Keepers campaign, each of the young women spent a day blindfolded.
“We wanted to know what it felt like to be blind so we could be able to communicate that to others,” Landau says.
She enlisted her mother’s help as she navigated life as a visually impaired person.
She says her loss of independence was the most difficult part of the exercise. But through it, she was able to gain a sense of the daily challenges faced by people who have gone blind.
“You really gain an admiration for them, adapting to this new barrier in their life — because it’s not easy,” says Landau.
Once they gained the ability to convey what living without vision was like, the next step was to inform others and raise money for the micro-surgical eye centre.
“Our team decided to create awareness and empathy about the cause through experience,” she says.
In keeping with this theme, they opted to host an event at O.Noir restaurant where diners are served by blind waiters in a pitch-black room. Landau says it was a great way to show donors what their contributions would help to achieve, by placing them in the dark for an evening and then leading them back into the light.
“They can experience what they’re giving back to Tibetans –—the ability to see again,” she says.
The dinner raised $1,900, adding to the $1,000 drawn in by an online raffle and about $100 drummed up at a bake sale. In total, the Real Sight Keepers brought in more than $3,000 in a matter of weeks.
The situation in Tibet is largely due to a lack of resources, say Landau. Blindness there often results from conditions — primarily cataracts — that are preventable and treatable through a half-hour procedure that costs $50.
Once built, the micro-surgical eye clinic is expected to restore the sight of roughly 200 Tibetans each year.
Not only will the project give these people the tools to do so, but it will teach local doctors how to perform the procedure, which, Landau says, is a key ingredient in making lasting change.
“These doctors can teach other doctors in the community and spread it that way, at a grassroots level,” she says.
Giving Tibetans their sight back will enable them to participate in local agriculture, she says, and, ultimately, help to promote sustainable development.
For Landau, it didn’t matter that they didn’t win the prize at the end of the contest (won by a “voluntour” trip to Peru that combines travelling and volunteering). She has accomplished what she hoped to do.
A key message of their campaign was to encourage people to come up with reasons why things can be done. Raising awareness about Tibetan blindness and inspiring others, she says, has been a reward in and of itself.
“We’re really proud of what we’ve done because we know we put our love into action in many different ways,” says Landau.
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