Did you know that over 50% of all charities on the official register of charities are run entirely by volunteers?
One of ESVS’s volunteers visited a partially-sighted lady in Brighton called Margaret for five years. Margaret was so grateful that she left a very large sum of money to ESVS (then ESAB) in her Will. This has made a massive difference to ESVS and enables us to improve and expand our services to people like Margaret. It may be that you know someone, a family member, friend or neighbour, who has a visual impairment as Margaret did. We would like, indeed ESVS was set up, to help people like that and we would like to think that you too would like to help such people.
ESVS helps blind and partially sighted people with training, advice and support in East Sussex including Brighton and Hove. Our office in Hailsham is run by a small but dedicated group of staff. However, ESVS relies for many of its services on volunteers.
To enable us to provide these services, we depend to a very large extent on voluntary donations and legacies. There are 800,000 people in the UK with a visual impairment – 6,500 in Sussex. With all the pressures there are on our health and public services and with an aging population, more and more people, of all ages, rely on the services that ESVS provides.
We would love to be able to provide a greater range of services but do not currently have the resources to do so. Maybe you could help us?
- Provide a county-wide home visiting service
- Give a better resources service in Brighton and Hove where there is a high level of need.
- Reach out to more people – at the moment we only have 1,700 people actually accessing our services
Any gift, big or small, helps make sure blind and partially sighted people in Sussex have the facilities and support to live their lives to the full.
- £500 would fund a home visitor for a blind person for 6 months
- £2,000 would support a social group giving advice and friendship to up to 50 people for a year
- £12,000 would provide an Aids and Equipment Officer helping blind people make the most of their lives for a year
- £25,000 would fund a full time low vision support worker giving training to partially sighted people across Sussex for a year