Students Collecting Prescription Eyeglasses for Impoverished Dominican Families

Eighth graders at Berkeley Preparatory School in Tampa are preparing for a service trip to the Dominican Republic this February with the hopes of bringing hundreds of prescription eyeglasses to visually impaired schoolchildren and their families. These students are asking the public to drop off their unwanted prescription eyeglasses to Berkeley’s campus, located at 4811 Kelly Road in Tampa by Monday, February 14.

More than 20 eighth-grade students will travel with the donated eyewear to the Dominican school, the Centro de Formacion Integral Cigar Family, near Bonao in late February. Joining students will be Berkeley parent Richadetta Perallon, who is trained to test those in need of corrective eyewear and match them with the appropriate lenses. This service initiative will provide much-needed eye care to impoverished children and adults who would otherwise not be able to receive it.

“We have been looking for a way to provide eye care assistance to both the students and the population in general and have not had any luck up to now,” said David Luther Executive Director of the Instituto Dominicano de Desarrollo Integral (IDDI), a non-profit organization with an objective contributing to overcome poverty effects in both rural and urban areas.

The school that Berkeley students will visit is located in one of the poorest and most primitive sections of the Dominican Republic, and it was founded and built by the Newman family and their partner, Carlos Fuente, Jr. In addition to donating eye glasses while in the DR, Berkeley students will assemble and distribute water filters, participate in impromptu games and dancing with Dominican children, learn about DR culture, and meet with a Peace Corps volunteer who works with local villagers.


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