So we kicked off 2025 by taking your eyewear donations to The Zikomo Trust. We had over 3000 pairs of glasses, sunglasses, ready readers and even some prescription swimming goggles. We want to say a huge thank you to every single person who has donated their old glasses to us, and enabled us to pass them on to such a fantastic cause.
The Zikomo Trust supports orphans, vulnerable children and the elderly in Malawi. Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world with a GDP per capita of just $1.65 per day (2023 figures) yet its 20 million people are always welcoming and friendly as befits their reputation as ‘The Warm Heart of Africa’.
The trust was formed in 2011 to provide a formal organisation to represent the previous 24 years of fundraising for projects in Malawi and to provide a vehicle for future assistance.
We came across the charity through the founder and chairman Barry Brindley, who coincidentally, is a fellow member at a local golf club. Previously, people in Wakefield would donate their old spectacles to the charity which would be stored and sent on shipments to Malawi when a container was full, they take donations on a whole manner of items from hat's to bicycles.
We decided we could use our platform and fantastic customer base and reach to substantially increase eyewear donations and help those in need. The spectacles are distributed by various Lions Clubs around Malawi. The Zikomo trust send your donations directly to the Kasungu Lions Club for distribution.
Here I am with founder and chairman Barry Brindley dropping off our latest collection of donated eyewear.
The charity does lot's of amazing work including The Chilanga School for the Blind which provides specialist education for the blind and partially sighted. The Zikomo trust has been donating braille items (braillers, braille paper, games and toys adapted for the blind e.g footballs with beads inside, raised dominoes etc) as well as clothing and musical instruments for more than 30 years.
"Our aim is to raise awareness of the problems facing Malawi and to assist in the areas of education, poverty and healthcare"
One of the current challenges the charity faces is the cost of shipping to get all donations to Malawi. Cost implications like this are why some charities have stopped sending donations abroad and instead choose to recycle the materials.
The price of shipping a container to Malawi has trebled in recent years due to troubles in the middle east. Shipments can no longer be taken via the Suez Canal, and instead have to travel right round Africa, adding extra miles along with the associated costs.
We will continue to support The Zikomo Trust, so please do keep sending us your eyewear donations. We can donate spectacle cases too if they are still functional.
If you want to donate and recycle any of your old eyewear, you can find information on where to send them here.
Let's see how many frames we can collect in 2025. If you have donated frames with us drop a comment below.
