G-G Launches White Cane Month

Governor-General, His Excellency The Most Hon. Professor Sir Kenneth Hall, officially launched ‘White Cane Month’ yesterday (March 5) to raise awareness about serious eye conditions.
The launch, held at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in New Kingston, was in collaboration with the Lions Club of Kingston.
March is celebrated as White Cane Month by Lions Clubs internationally to raise awareness about sight deficiencies, particularly preventable conditions.The Governor-General said the month’s activities, which includes eye screenings across the island, “provides a useful opportunity to disseminate the most useful information and recent information about eye care and the impact of diseases on human existence.”
Lions Club International, he said, with its 1.4 million members, is one of the largest service clubs in the world that has adopted this programme as part of its service to mankind.
He also commended the Lions Club in Jamaica for responding to the challenge of aiding the blind and the visually impaired. “The Lions Club of Kingston must be congratulated for the exceptional work it has been doing in community development over the years..they have shown initiative and they have been able to mobilize awareness (and) resources, so that we can all be a better society, a more caring society, a society where your values begin to have a practical, concrete meaning,” he stated.
The launch of White Cane Month is part of an island-wide drive by the Lions Club of Jamaica to register every visually impaired and blind person in a national databank.
The registration drive is being done in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Environment and is being funded by the Culture, Health, Arts, Sports and Education (CHASE) fund.
The Lions Club of Jamaica is also working with the Jamaica Society for the Blind and the Adult Blind Club of Jamaica in carrying out the project. A major objective of the Club has been its work for the blind and sight-impaired through its Sight Conservation Committee. The Club has also been involved in a number of other projects such as speech and hearing, drug awareness and diabetes detection.