In November 2008, Drs. Steven and Karen Rosen teamed with 5 other optometrists and 20 additional Luxottica associates to deliver the "Gift of Sight" to over 13,000 needy people in Amritsar, India.  For "Dr. Karen," this was her 17th international mission.  This was "Dr. Steve's 16th international eyecare mission.

"Giving back is important for both of us," explained Dr. Karen.  "The people in developing countries like India don't come anywhere near having the things we have.  Many of the patients we saw gave up reading or doing close activities altogether.  Many times, all they needed was a decent pair of reading glasses.  Other people had more serious problems, but thankfully, we were able to work with local eye surgeons to identify people who needed cataract surgery or who had other problems.  All the people we helped were very appreciative, and it was a very rewarding experience."

"India is a fascinating country," added Dr. Steve.  "There is considerable poverty, but there is a lot of inspiration in seeing how adaptive everyone is.  The traffic is crazy with every kind of vehicle, all moving at different speeds.  Besides cars and busses, there are many motor scooters and bicycles on the roads.  If you need a taxi, you will most likely ride in either a 'tuk tuk,' which is like a 3-wheeled motorcycle with room for several passengers in the back, or a human powered bicycle rickshaw which holds 2 passengers.  The food is colorful, includes many vegetarian dishes, and is usually a bit spicy.  The people are colorful, too.  Often, you can tell what culture or faith people belong to by how they are dressed.  They are very proud and very friendly.  A couple of us had occasion to be in someone's home but we were running late for joining back with our group.  Late or not, leaving before accepting some hospitality in the form of coffee and snacks was unthinkable."

Without donations of good quality used eyeglasses, missions like this would not be possible.  Drs. Karen and Steve Rosen (as well as LensCrafters and the Luxoittica Group) want to encourage all our patients to recycle their used eyewear.  Used eyewear can be brought to any LensCrafters location.  To learn more about this wonderful program, we invite you to visit the OneSight web page.

For a look at photographs of our missions, click here.