Striking a balance: LIGHT FOR THE WORLD reaches 550,000 persons in 2008

from left to right: Rupert Roniger, Chris Lohner, Dr. Karl Rigal, Dr. Walter Strobl, Kristina Sprenger

The Austrian specialist organisation strikes a balance, adding up the proceeds of 2008. Despite economic and financial turmoil worldwide: total amount of donations up by 4.8 percent. These positive developments facilitate continuous extension of relief projects targeting blind and disabled people in the “Third World” in 2009.

„In total we were able to reach 550,000 persons in the Third World with our aid last year“, explains Rupert Roniger, managing director of LIGHT FOR THE WORLD on the occasion of the organisation’s annual press conference in Vienna. In the context of 112 relief projects in Africa, Asia, Latin America and South East Europe 35,000 cataract surgeries were carried out. Furthermore 15,000 disabled children received support. 125,244 persons, organisations and institutions supported the work of the Austrian specialist organisation LIGHT FOR THE WORLD in 2008. The proceeds amounted to 10.29 million Euro (2007: 8.83 million). This comprises project support given by the Austrian Development Cooperation (EUR 441,804,-), by the province of Lower Austria (EUR 5,500,-) and by the European Union (EUR 555,936,-).

This increase in proceeds in particular can be attributed to immense contributions in kind by the pharmaceutical business CROMA from Korneuburg, main sponsor of the “Austrian Initiative against Blindness” (“Österreichische Initiative gegen Blindheit”). The increase furthermore is due to the legacy of the late actress Elfriede Dahlke-Gerhart, whose last will it was to continue to aid blind and disabled persons in less developed countries after her death. The proceeds from donations (both monetary donations and donations in kind) have risen by 4.8 percent to 7.65 million Euro. All this facilitated an increase of the project scale by 14 percent.
 
Blatant shortage of ophthalmologists
Dr. Karl Rigal, senior physician at the Clinic of Ophthalmology at the Vienna Hanusch hospital and honorary board member of LIGHT FOR THE WORLD explains the ophthalmic connections: “The problem in less developed countries is the blatant shortage of ophthalmologists and ophthalmic specialists. Especially in rural areas people have hardly any chance of seeing an eye specialist. In order to be able to guarantee sustainable help, we need to build up local structures, create posts and invest in the training of local specialists.“

 Chris Lohner: „I can alleviate individual fates“
As a LIGHT FOR THE WORLD Good Will Ambassador Chris Lohner has been accompanying relief operations in the deprived areas of our world (at her own expense) for eight years now: „I know that I cannot save the whole world, but I can alleviate individual fates. In the course of my travels I witness time and again the joy of people healed from cataracts, often after years of blindness. The joy of parents when their disabled children are able to take their first steps after having received surgery and mobility training – these are deeply moving experiences. The joy and bliss of these people for me is the strongest motivation to continue walking this path as Good Will Ambassador for as long as I am able to do so.

A disability as a fight for sheer survival
Dr. Walter Michael Strobl, senior physician at the orthopaedic hospital Speising and rehabilitation expert, knows from his own participation in voluntary relief missions in Africa and South America: “In the poverty-stricken areas of our world a disability is to be equated with fighting for one’s survival, and that in many respects: When children are born with disabilities, not only they are stigmatised, but their whole family is ostracised. The therapy and auxiliary means needed to teach these children to sit, stand and walk are more often than not financially impossible to obtain. That way there simply are no means of rehabilitating these children. Disabled children in the Third World have a very low life expectancy.”

Kristina Sprenger is a child sponsor
Last April LIGHT FOR THE WORLD launched the first Austrian child sponsorship scheme for disabled children in Africa. As little as 25 Euro per month make it possible to provide medical treatment and rehabilitative care for a disabled child in Burkina Faso or Ethiopia. The actress and “Romy” laureate Kristina Sprenger is a novice child sponsor. She describes her motivation as follows: “We in the industrialized world are obliged to help the weakest links of society in the deprived areas of our world. Charity and humanity should not be meaningless buzzwords – we can fill them with life!”