“It is only right that we pause and think about those who have never known what it means to be able to SEE”, said Vivian Reddy the Chairman of Sibaya Casino and Sibaya Community Trust.
The need is for us, the visually gifted, to want to award the incredible gift of “sight” that we have been bestowed with and ensure that, when the time comes to act, we stand together and pass on the gift of sight to those less fortunate he added.
We fully understand that vision loss can affect one’s physical health by increasing the risk of falls and quality of life, and it can also have a big impact on mental health resulting in social isolation, depression, loneliness, fear and anxiety.
Thus, with a view to this and the commitment to change the lives of the less fortunate, we at Sibaya Community Trust has sponsored 50 vulnerable children and youth to undergo corrective eye surgery and related treatments he added.
Our sponsorship via our service provider Keratoconus Foundation SA saw them facilitate desperately needed treatment of corneal transplant, cross-linking, intacs and contact lens to patients.
We are glad that our sponsorship also enabled the foundation to provide training of clinicians, registrars and UKZN optometry students here at McCord Provincial Hospital.
Today, hundreds of people are in need of a lifesaving corneal transplant. In fact, many of them die waiting for a donated cornea and some taken off the waiting list because they became too sick for a transplant.
We are really happy to have made a difference to 50 children.We are also proud to be associated with the Cardiac Foundation of SA whereby we sponsored 40 children to undergo corrective heart surgery, these surgeries took place at the eThekwini heart hospital. Our financial intervention most certainly has SAVED lives of the most vulnerable he said.
Further we continue with free cancer screening via our NPO Daughters of Africa, who also assist us on our free covid vaccination drive. From our free cancer screening, over 400 people were found to have had abnormal cells and referred to specialists.
Sibaya Community Trust has supported over 120 entities and has spent close to R250-million on community upliftment projects ranging from programs around health, education, infrastructure and much more.
Over the last few weeks, we have handed over many completed projects.We have numerous legacy projects attached to our name. Our Trust plays a significant role by being actively entrenched and consistent in community upliftment.
Our list of infrastructure projects has served masses in the communities they were built in.We are committed and will continue to reach out to change as many lives as possible.He thanked Prof Vanessa Moodley, the founding Trustee of Keratoconus for bringing this project to Sibaya Community Trust and thanked the team at Keratoconus for the amazing work on our children.
Prof Vanessa Moodley praised the work of the Trust and said because of their generosity children were able to get their vision back, see the faces of their parents and teachers and return to society.
