The Spectacle Makers' Charity

Membership of a City of London livery company offers good fellowship, and an unsurpassed opportunity to cultivate new friendships and interests. However, it also implicitly entails three duties:

• To "maintain the privileges and uphold the dignity of our ancient and honourable City of London".
• To help the Company to support its parent craft.
• To contribute to its charitable fund.

A 2006 survey of the then 107 livery companies of the City of London revealed that they collectively made charitable disbursements totalling £41 million. Since the establishment of the Spectacle Makers' Charity in 1998, we have started to make a reasonable contribution to that figure, but we ought to be able to do better. Every Spectacle Maker undertakes on admission to the Freedom to contribute to the fund, which is a means of combining individual contributions and transforming them into something that has a great collective power for good upon the beneficiaries.

Those beneficiaries are largely, but not exclusively, national (and in some cases international) organizations that are dedicated either to the fight against the causes of visual impairment, or to improving the quality of life for those unfortunate individuals who have already fallen victim to it. They are chosen by the Trustees who can draw upon their own and the Company's unique combination of knowledge and skills in the field of eye care to ensure that the grants will be used to best effect.

Some of our beneficiaries have been featured quite prominently in recent editions of From the Master & Wardens, but if you would like to remind yourself of who they are and what we do for them, please see Recent Grants.

All donations are gratefully received and regular donations can be made very easily by means of a standing order, and in a tax efficient manner by using Gift Aid, thereby allowing the Charity to claim back from HMRC an additional 28p for every £1 donated.

Please also consider making the Spectacle Makers' Charity a beneficiary under your will. The Livery Company can certainly be trusted to use your legacy in accordance with your wishes. When Dean John Colet, the founder of St Paul's School, was asked several hundred years ago why he had bequeathed his estate to the trusteeship of the Mercers' Company, he replied:

"...that there is no absolute certainty in human affairs, but for his part he found less corruption in such a body of citizens than in any other order or degree of mankind."

Not only can you be sure that the Spectacle Makers will make the best possible use of your legacy, but your munificence will be recorded for posterity in the Book of Benefactors.

Please help the Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers to increase our capability to do what we were founded to do in 1629 – lessen the incidence of preventable visual impairment and improve the quality of life for those who have unfortunately succumbed to it.

John Morrison
Chairman of Trustees
The Spectacle Makers' Charity

Some Recent Grants

As is now customary on such occasions, the Master made two presentations at the end of the Court Luncheon on 8th March on behalf of the trustees of the Spectacle Makers' Charity.

Blind in Business and SSAFA

Blind in Business was established some seventeen years ago by three blind graduates who, despite their good degrees, found it difficult to obtain employment due to misconceptions about their impairment. Through persistence, two eventually rose to become partners in a law firm. The third became the first blind person to obtain an MBA, and then went on to forge a highly successful business career. Together, they launched Blind in Business to make employers aware that visual impairment is not in itself a bar to useful employment, and to show the blind how they could compete for good jobs on equal terms with sighted candidates.

The second photograph on the right shows the Master presenting a cheque to General Sir Kevin O'Donoghue, Chairman of the Soldiers', Sailors' and Airmen's Families Association [SSAFA] to help fund temporary accommodation for families of the wounded at the Defence Services' Hospital Facility at Selly Oak in Birmingham, and the Rehabilitation Centre at Headley Court, near Leatherhead in Surrey.

Noting that the Court had also been joined at this luncheon by the Master Painter-Stainer, General Sir Roger Wheeler, the Master remarked that "4-star Generals" were just like buses; you wait a long time for one, then two appear together!

John at Henshaw's College

In 2010, the trustees agreed to provide the funds that would allow a blind and severely disabled teenager to complete his time at Henshaw's College in Harrogate after the family had been refused help by their local authority. In thanking the trustees, his mother wrote:

"Towards the end of 2010 we were unsure if John could continue at Henshaws as we were facing such an uphill struggle to raise the funds needed. We had by then used almost all the money made available by ourselves, family, friends and local community groups. It was such a stressful time for us all; John was thriving at Henshaws, becoming so confident and mature, and I was distraught at the thought of him having to give it all up.

"We are just an ordinary family, trying to do what is best for our son, and at Henshaws John learned that he is capable of so much more than he thought. Your support made it possible for John to continue to achieve his goals, and we are so grateful to you for believing in him and making such a difference to his life.

"John will be leaving Henshaws in July this year, a much more confident young man who has achieved so much over his two years there, and you have helped to give him that opportunity".

Some Previous Grants

2009/2010 Charity donations increase

The trustees of the Spectacle Makers' Charity are delighted to report that, thanks to the collective generosity of the Livery and Freedom, they will be able to increase the amount disbursed this year by 17%, compared to 2008/09.

Given the gloomy economic background against which this has been achieved, we echo the trustees’ thanks to you all, and trust that you will continue to support our Charity as much as your circumstances allow. Amongst this year’s beneficiaries of your kindness and generosity are:

• Henshaw’s College for the Blind
• The Royal National College for the Blind
• The British Wireless for the Blind Fund
• The RNIB’s Library Service
• The Visual Advisory Service at Treloar College
• The St Thomas’ collaborative training & research programme with the Ophthalmology Department of the Muhumbili University of Health and Allied Services in Tanzania.
• Optometry Giving Sight
• The Jubilee Sailing Trust & Sailability

The trustees have also been able to contribute to national campaigns to help the wounded returning from Afghanistan, and their families, through grants to the Royal British Legion, the British Limbless Ex-Servicemen’s Association and SSAFA, besides ensuring that the Spectacle Makers continue to support such major City causes as the Lord Mayor’s Appeal, The Sheriffs’ & Recorder’s Fund and St Paul’s Fabric Fund.

The Jinja Vision Centre (Uganda)

In 2009, the trustees of the Spectacle Makers' Charity donated £12,000 to Vision Aid Overseas (VAO) to pay for the purchase of glazing equipment to be installed in a "Vision Centre" in Jinja, Uganda.

VAO had been active in that Country since 1992, and for many years its work there was led by Past Master Peter Mills.

Gradually, and through successive visits, a team of 15 Ugandans became trained to the point where they could be employed to carry out basic refraction as Ophthalmic Clinical Officers (OCOs). What was then needed was local access to affordable prescription glasses.

Jinja Regional Referral Hospital was identified as a suitable location for their manufacture, and once VAO and their incounty partner Sightsavers had concluded a Memorandum of Understanding with the Uganda Ministry of Health, one of its buildings was substantially renovated for that purpose. Then in July 2010 a team of 8 VAO volunteers arrived to set up the "Vision Centre", and to provide an outreach service to the local population, which would also serve as a means of verifying the capability of the indigenous OCOs.

With the equipment installed and calibrated, the team's technician, Phil Gascoigne, and Dispensing Optician Julie Heaney were able to begin training. George Nashimolo had previously worked as an optical technician using only a hand edger. He relished the challenge of learning how to use the new glazing machine, and was quickly producing spectacles of a very high quality.

For the other two members of staff, Jalia Namulondo and Asunta Sakaro, the challenge was far greater. Although both had worked in a variety of roles within Jinja Hospital Eye Department, neither had any knowledge of optics or experience of prescription glasses. However, they were both very enthusiastic students, and rapidly acquired the skills required for both dispensing and glazing.

After an intensive two week training course - and an impressive opening ceremony – the Jinja Vision Centre is now open for business, offering eye examinations and affordable glasses to the local population. Additionally, VAO's partnership with Sightsavers will enable prescription glasses to be made available, free of charge, to children of school age in the area.

The Vision Centre staff and the Medical Superintendent of Jinja Regional Referral Hospital are extremely grateful to the Spectacle Makers' Charity for its support of this project.

British Wireless for the Blind Fund

The British Wireless for the Blind Fund (BWBF) supplies audio sets to those on means-tested benefits who also have to cope with the handicap of visual impairment.

Most of the recipients are elderly, though some are as young as eight, and their audio set can become many things to them: a means of listening to the news, information and entertainment; a link with the outside world; an opportunity to hear the latest best-selling book; or the means of recording a message for a loved one. As one recipient remarked, "It's so much more than just a radio... it really is my companion".

In 2009, the BWBF was able to place 141 sets in inner London, 17 of which were as a direct result of a previous grant from the Spectacle Makers' Charity – but demand, it seems, will unfortunately always outstrip supply. 13,500 people in inner London alone are registered as blind or partially sighted, and of these 75% are aged 75 or over. A further 670 people are expected to register for the first time this year.

To add to the problem, the BWBF has to keep pace with technological developments. All its sets have to be robust, and have controls that are easy to use and labelled in high contrast colours for those users with some residual sight. The current Concerto and Duet2 sets cost around £140 each, depending on whether they are digital, or additionally equipped with a CD player and have MP3 capabilities or a memory card player. The new Sonata sets, which give access to a much broader range of web-based audio services, cost £315 per unit.

Nor is simple provision enough; the BWBF also has to find agents or trained volunteers to deliver each set, and assist the recipient with the initial setting up.

RNIB's National Library Service

There is no reason why the blind or visually impaired should not be able enjoy a good book as easily as fully sighted people.

To that end the trustees of the Spectacle Makers' Charity have been making grants to the RNIB's National Library Service for a number of years, with the money being used for the production of Braille and audio books. In 2009, the Spectacle Makers sponsored the following new titles:

• Fearless by Tim Lott ("young adult" fiction)
• All the Nice Girls by Joan Bakewell
• Home by Marilynne Robinson
• The Private Patient by PD James
• Jeeves in the Offing by PG Wodehouse

The 2010 grant will be used to sponsor:

• Snow in April by Rosamunde Pilcher
• Declare by Tim Powers
• A Matter of Trust by Robin Pilche
• The Crowfield Curse by Pat Walsh (children's fiction)
• The Legacy by Katherine Webb