“Now I See,” a team from the business club Enactus, is working to open the eyes of those they are serving.
Now I See has been selling t-shirts to fundraise for the non-profit organization Eyes for India. The shirts have been sold on the project’s website and in the student center. A tee costs $20, but larger donations are also accepted.
The goal of Now I See is to create a sustainable funding for the work of Jacob Prabhakar, MD, the surgeon for Eyes for India. He has developed a method that reduces cataract removal time from 30 minutes to three minutes, allowing for more than 300 patients to be seen each day.
According to the Eyes for India website, cataracts blind 75 percent of those 60 and older throughout India. Some students are excited to support this cause.
“My father had a cataract, but he always had the option to regain his vision through Western medicine,” Allison Anders, sophomore engineering studies major, said. “I sympathize with those who don’t have any hope, so I am happy to know my donation will give one more person what my father has.”
The donations collected from the shirt sales would provide the resources necessary for Prabhakar to continue cataract removals and potentially one day build a clinic overseas where Southern students could go to serve and gain hands-on medical experience.
The project is also an opportunity for entrepreneurially-minded students to dip their toes in the non-profit world of business and implement skills learned in business classes for a humanitarian cause.
“I was tired of doing nothing and just taking naps in my free time. I wanted to have a purpose and make a difference,”said Jeanelle Arguelles, Now I See public relations manager and junior public relations major.
Now I See is currently planning a second campaign as the next step in broadening their reach on campus. The brand continues to grow as more students give their input on the growing business.
“I am happy to see this type of non-profit work taking place on a university level, but it also saddens me that when we give, our society expects some kind of reward in return,” Nicole Dominguez, junior English major, said. “But if providing a product is what’s necessary to raise awareness, then I’m glad to see it become a mainstream business model.”
Project director Darryl Magno foresees this project expanding beyond t-shirts and developing into a non-profit lifestyle brand. The team’s goal is to create a program that will sustain the works of Prabhakar indefinitely.
A new shirt design is scheduled to release during Asian Night on April 14. To learn more about this project, visit nowisee.org.