Unite For Sight Founder Receives Global Youth In Action Award

September 28, 2004 - Unite for Sight's Founder, President and CEO Jennifer Staple was among 9 young and inspiring community leaders who will receive the 2004 Global Youth in Action Awards. This year's awards program concentrates on youth-initiated projects that take an innovative approach to problem-solving. Albert Einstein is remembered for stating that today's problems cannot be solved with the same thinking that created them, and the Awards highlight new ways that youth are addressing age-old issues in their community.

Jennifer Staple, 23, founded Unite For Sight in Fall 2000 while a sophomore college student at Yale University. The organization grew from a community-based organization in New Haven, Connecticut, to an international global humanitarian organization with more than 85 chapters and 3,000 volunteers throughout the world. The Global Youth in Action Award will fund Unite For Sight's Cataract Surgery Program in Humjibre, Ghana to restore sight among cataract patients. Unite For Sight's student interns in Ghana screen for operable cataracts in the village and help to transport the patients with operable cataracts to the Cape Coast Christian Eye Centre in Cape Coast, Ghana, for surgery.

The Global Youth in Action Awards recognize youth-led solutions and are a vital component of the Global Youth Action Network's efforts to highlight positive ways in which young people are improving gtheir communities. The winners were selected from a pool of 500 applicants worldwide by a committee of their peers with experience in philanthropy. The top nine winners are each awarded US$1,000 to recognize their achievements.

"When young people are recognized for the amazing contributions they make, it reinforces their value as positive agents for social change," said GYAN executive director Benjamin Quinto. Funds for this year's program have been provided by the Shei'rah Foundation, whose mission is to fund and support media projects that bring positive and uplifting messages to the world. The Youth in Action Awards program was initially launched by Youth in Action, a US-based not for profit corporation. With support from UNESCO's InfoYouth Network, GYAN coordinated the distribution of the first Global Youth in Action Awards in 1999, and since then has led the global program.

About Unite For Sight

Unite For Sight® is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that empowers communities worldwide to improve eye health and eliminate preventable blindness. Unite For Sight's unwavering commitment to creating a real, lasting impact involves three types of programs: chapters in North America, international eye care outreach programs, and an annual global health conference. Unite For Sight has trained more than 4,000 volunteers who work in their local communities and abroad to provide eye health programs for those without previous access and has provided eye care services to more than 600,000 people worldwide.

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