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PROVO — Along with his wife and brother, a man who graduated from Brigham Young University is giving the gift of sight to less fortunate children.
Trammell Cox served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Cambodia, and his family traveled there to pick him up after he finished. His brother, Parker, who is “blind as a bat” without glasses, wanted to do his Eagle Scout project in Cambodia, and he collected eyeglasses and cash donations and coordinated a screening of an orphanage in Cambodia, according to Trammell Cox.
The optometrist who screened the orphans put brand new prescription lenses in the donated glasses for about $7 a pair, and it only cost $100 to get glasses for all the kids in the orphanage who needed them, Trammell Cox said.
“It was so cool to see. We spent an entire day handing out the glasses that he collected, and then we ended the day with that. And it was so cool to see just the eyes light up as they put these glasses on and they could see,” Trammell Cox said.
The Cox brothers wanted to continue their work in the future, but it didn't really start until after Trammell Cox married his wife, Jen, he said. In 2012, Seeing is Believing was born.
“We’re a nonprofit organization that provides eye glasses … to less fortunate kids throughout the world,” Trammell Cox said.
Currently, the nonprofit largely focuses on Cambodia and Laos. They provide glasses for orphans, students in less fortunate schools and children in poorer-than-normal communities.
“We work with local optometrists in the countries that we go to, and we find optometrists who will screen schools or orphanages or organizations that focus on less fortunate individuals, and they go and they screen the children there, and any kids that need glasses, they write down their prescription and then they’ll go and make the glasses and we’ll purchase the glasses in bulk from that optometrist,” Trammell Cox said. “And so usually, we can get them down to about $5 a pair now, and so I think over the last three years we’ve provided over 10,000 pairs of eyeglasses.” Seeing is Believing launched a crowdfunding campaign* to give the community a chance to provide glasses to those in need. As of Wednesday morning, it had raised more than $5,000.
*KSL.com does not assure that the monies deposited to the account will be applied for the benefit of the persons named as beneficiaries. If you are considering a deposit to the account, you should consult your own advisors and otherwise proceed at your own risk.