Looking Out for Kids Mayoral Citation
Salus University and The Eye Institute's "Looking Out for Kids" charity received a mayoral citation from the City of Philadelphia for their work with the School District. This initiative impacts children living in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods in the Greater Philadelphia area, who need vision and hearing services.
Looking out for Kids 2022 Lighthouse Award Winner Professor Kovin Naidoo was also honored with a proclamation from Montgomery County.
Below is the citation from Mayor James F. Kenney.
The City of Philadelphia is enormously proud that so many remarkable individuals and organizations in our esteemed City of Brotherly and Sisterly Love choose to embrace all of their fellow Philadelphians and encourage them to support one another. Those who help others break through any potential barrier they face so they can live their lives to the fullest potential earn our utmost admiration and respect.
Since establishing the Looking Out for Kids (LOFK) charity, The Eye Institute (TEI) of Salus University has provided vision care services and eyeglasses to thousands of children from the School District of Philadelphia, and, in more recent years, to school districts in Montgomery, Chester, and Delaware counties as well as charter and parochial schools in the region. In total, more than 37,000 children have been screened through the LOFK initiative since 2010.
Looking Out for Kids is based on collaborations with school leadership and staff who partner with TEI of Salus University to identify vision care priorities, gain parental/caregiver permission, and organize logistics. Working closely with school nurses, TEI staff deploy mobile vision units and vision care teams to schools to provide free vision screenings. For children who fail vision screenings, LOFK works with school nurses to schedule students at TEI for free comprehensive vision care and eyeglasses. For school year 2021-2022, LOFK worked collaboratively with nine school districts to provide an array of services to students including vision screenings for 6,454 children, eye exams for 739 children and dispensing of 1,182 pairs of prescription glasses.
On Saturday, November 12, 2022, the organization will host their 15th Annual Looking Out for Kids Charity Fundraiser at the National Constitution Center and will honor Kovin Naidoo, OD, MPH '95, PhD, and Global Head, Advocacy and Partnerships at the OneSight EssilorLuxottica Foundation and Former CEO of Brien Holden Vision Institute, with the 2022 Lighthouse Award.
Professor Naidoo is an academic, former anti-apartheid activist and political prisoner, optometrist and an internationally celebrated public health leader. His professional life has been dedicated to delivering eye care to people in need, a mission shared by all involved with Looking Out for Kids. Professor Naidoo was nominated for the Lighthouse Award for his work as founder of Our Children's Vision, a campaign to ensure that effective, sustainable eye health initiatives for children and adolescents are part of appropriate health programs and integrated into regional, national and global education and policy. The campaign attracted 100 organizations and reached 400 million children globally. Professor Naidoo was instrumental in bringing Uncorrected Refractive Error (URE) - poor vision due to lack of eye exams and glasses - to the center stage of the global public health agenda.
It is fitting and appropriate, therefore, that the City of Philadelphia officially recognize with this Citation
LOOKING OUT FOR KIDS
2022 LIGHTHOUSE AWARD
PROFESSOR KOVIN NAIDOO
and commend the honoree and the organization for their advocacy and efforts to provide vision care service and eyeglasses to our youth.
