‘The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread’ truly said by Mother Teresa.

This has been definitely exemplified by Sherry Williams President and CEO, of Prevent Blindness when she bestowed love and most crucial “Vision” on Bradly D’Souza when he was a 13-year-old boy struggling with broken glasses and no medical insurance in the United States of America.

Prevent Blindness, Ohio Affiliate representatives Sherry Williams and Bradly D’Souza joined Hriday Raval of BHARAT FM® Facebook and YouTube Channel on March 20th for an informative hour of discussion on the mission and programs of the organization. Sherry serves as its President & CEO and Bradly is an organization ambassador and past member of the Board of Directors.

Every 11 minutes, someone in the United States loses their eyesight.  The leading causes of blindness and visual impairment in adults are glaucoma, diabetes related eye disease, cataract, and macular degeneration.  In children, the leading causes are amblyopia and strabismus.  50% of vision loss is preventable! 

Bradly D’Souza at 19 years was appointed as the youngest ‘Board of Director’ for Prevent Blindness.

Children who do not see well, do not socialize well; spoke Sherry Williams.

Prevent Blindness educates the public about the leading causes of eye disease and arms them with the information on how they can protect their vision.  In adults, vision loss increases the chance of falling, increases incidents of depression, social isolation, and poor health, decreases independence and increases the likelihood of a nursing home admission.  Vision plays an important role in children’s physical, cognitive, and social development. Uncorrected vision problems can impair child development, interfere with learning, and even lead to permanent vision loss; thus, early detection and treatment are critical.

Sherry with deep sentiments reflected; I do have to say when Bradly was young, and we look at what kind of learning takes place through your gift of sight, eighty percent of what a child learns is through their gift of sight. To remove that barrier from the other barriers is such an easy wonderful thing to do, when there are so many other challenges that one is facing. I am so proud of what Bradly has done and the tiny little bit part we have played in it, I am humbled.

This inspiring boy then, but a thriving man today said; “It’s not small but it’s very core to my everyday life.  We take it for granted when we have it. The fact I wake up and can look at my phone or look at anything, was solved by megetting those glasses.

Hriday Raval asked Bradly “We have read and heard of the Blockbuster Biopic film being made on your father Harold D’Souza being released in 2022.” Bradly said; ‘I am excited, my story is not possible without his story.As somebody who has been slowly pushing in the background, to have him get to this point is really exciting as to what will develop and what will be there. There is still parts of my Dad that I don’t know, as it wasa very traumatic experience for him. From an awareness aspect of Eyes Open International the story will be more encompassing. If all goes well, it will be done with best intentions and won’t be done in a poor manner. I am very supportive and excited for the final project.

For more information on Prevent Blindness go to pbohio.org or preventblindness.org.