Tipperary students promoting positive eye health
A group of students from St. Ailbe’s secondary school are leading the way to promoting positive eye health in their community with their project titled, An Eye for An i.
The Young Social Innovators (YSI) launched “Love Your Eyes on Valentine’s” last week to encourage local businesses and supermarkets to provide magnifiers for people who may have difficulty reading small print on labels.
“When talking with some oder people in the community the students found a lot of people struggle to read labels with small print on food packaging or on medicine labels. Many older people do not like using Iphones or information technology to assist them so the students decided to address this by inviting local shops and supermarkets in Tipperary Town to stock large +2 prescription magnifying glasses in their stores to help people read labels on food cans and all small print when shopping,” explained Principal Ruaidhri Devitt.
“The students did some street surveys and found 85% of all the people they surveyed had difficulty trying to see labels on food cans. All of the people surveyed were in favour of the student’s idea to put magnifiers in the shops. They are also providing small key ring sized magnifiers, which will be very helpful when out shopping for everyone. They will sell these key rings in the coming weeks to raise funding for the project.”
Anne Bradshaw with the HSE Disability Services works with groups in the community to address issues of concern in terms of access. “To the best of our knowledge, this is the first of it’s kind in Ireland and we think the students might be responsible for starting a project that could easily be rolled out right around the Country. With a simple idea to support people who struggle to read small print, the magnifiers will make a big difference to people when shopping, especially to many people who have food allergies and need to be fully aware of food ingredients and contents.”
Marathon Runner
Motivational speaker and ultra marathon runner Sinead Kane from Cork spoke at the launch about living with sight loss in the community and Anne Marie Walshe from the NCBI also spoke to the students about positive eye health.
The students held a bake sale at their school and also held a blind tasting event to promote the importance of your sight. From the money raised they created an information pamphlet to accompany the magnifiers launch. These pamphlets are designed to promote positive eye health highlighting how precious our sight is, how important it is to get a regular eye test and how important it is to look after your eyes. The students engaged the support of local opticians to ensure people look after their eyesight.
“Many people don’t even know that you are entitled to a free eye test if you have paid a certain amount of PRSI contributions or if you have a medical card,” said TY student Cian.
Claire Long, TY Co-ordinator said, “The students have learned a lot from this project and have been proactive in addressing positive eye health in Tipperary. The engagement with the local community was a huge part of the project and I would like to say thanks to all the local shops and businesses that supported the project. The pamphlets will be available to pick up in shops and supermarkets over the coming weeks.”
“It was great to meet with representatives from Eyesight Opticians, Shane Kelly’s Pharmacy and the AIB,” added Principal Mr. Devitt. “We also had our learners from Age Action Ireland. Our Anne Bradshaw from the HSE has been a wonderful support and has given valuable advice and insight to the students. We aim to promote positive eye health and to that end, we are encouraging people who are struggling to read small print to have their eyesight checked at the opticians. If you are out and about and come across some of the key ring magnifiers on sale the students would greatly appreciate your support.”