Vote for ORBIS International to win $1.5 million for pediatric eye care in India
NEW YORK, Sept. 17 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Nyan and Lehka Pendyala, ages 9 and 7, who launched a "Kids for Sight" initiative one year ago to help ORBIS International establish a specialized pediatric eye care unit and training center in India, have made it to the Top 25 of the American Express Members Project. If enough AMEX cardholders vote for the "Kids for Sight" project by September 29, it will advance to the Top 5 and be eligible to win $1.5 million in funding.
"To make it to the Top 25 out of nearly 1,200 entries is a remarkable achievement," said Linda Mancini, director of U.S. development, ORBIS International. "Nyan and Lehka have made it their goal to raise funds so that children in India can have access to quality eye care. Their support of ORBIS is already making a difference in the lives of children on the other side of the world. If they win this contest, the impact of their efforts will dramatically increase."
ORBIS International, a nonprofit global development organization dedicated to saving sight worldwide, is the fulfilling organization for the Pendyala children's "Kids for Sight" project. Through its childhood blindness prevention initiative, ORBIS seeks to create 50 pediatric eye care centers in India by 2012.
The Pendyala children, both students at Hampton's Central Elementary School in Allison Park, Penn., a suburb of Pittsburgh, have selected an ORBIS pediatric eye care project in Chennai, India, as the beneficiary of their fundraising efforts. India, where the Pendyala family is from originally, is home to almost a fifth of the world's blind children and suffers from a severe lack of eye care professionals trained to treat children.
"In Sanskirt, my name means 'eyes' and 'vision.' I want to help blind children see their family and friends," said Nyan Pendyala, who has been forgoing birthday gifts for two years and requesting donations to ORBIS. His younger sister, Lehka, also stepped in to help. Her name means "line" and "writing" in Sanskrit. She noted, "If you can't see, you're going to have a hard time learning to read and write."
Before entering the Members Project, Nyan and Lehka had already raised more than $20,000 for this goal by sharing information and collecting donations online at their "Kids for Sight" webpage: http://www.orbis.org/KidsForSight.
To learn more about ORBIS, please visit http://www.orbis.org.
To vote for "Kids for Sight" and read more on the AMEX Members Project, go to http://www.membersproject.com/project/view/8CEPG6.
SOURCE ORBIS International
International News / Press Release source: PR Newswire
Copyright PR Newswire. All Rights Reserved.