Essilor Vision Foundation supports Eye Fair for Special Olympic athletes

Excitement and laughter filled the air as athletes with intellectual disabilities and their families visited booth after booth of games testing visual acuity, visual memory, depth perception, color vision and eye tracking at “Eye Can Play: A Healthy Eyeffair.” The event was sponsored by Essilor Vision Foundation, one of the philanthropic giving initiatives of Essilor, the world’s leading ophthalmic optics company.

Held at SM Sucat Entertainment Hall, “Eye Can Play” specifically used an “edutainment” approach to help Special Olympics athletes, their caregivers and their families learn more about the importance of healthy vision through interactive and engaging games. After undergoing quick vision screenings with Essilor volunteers, excited participants played “Pop the Bubble”, “Twister”, “Name It Quick”, ‘Finding Nemo”, “Finding Dory”, “Catch the Marble” and “Eye Can See”.

Brina Maxino and Sashi Montaña, the founders of “Eye Can Play”, saw the need for Filipino athletes with intellectual disabilities to test their eyes as good vision can affect not only their sport scores but also their overall quality of life. The two teens, who are part of the Special Olympics Philippine team, also envisioned the event as a venue to encourage people with intellectual disabilities to excel in sports and games. They presented the project at the 2015 Social Impact Summit, held during the Special Olympics World Games in Los Angeles, California that same year, where it earned a spot in the Top 5 out of 70 proposals.

“Essilor and Essilor Vision Foundation feel passionately that healthy vision is fundamental for every individual,” stated Essilor marketing manager Jinky Navo. “Our mission is to improve people’s lives by improving their sight, for everyone and everywhere. In line with this objective, we want to help people with intellectual disabilities to see the world better so that they can achieve more and aim higher, which is what some of the athletes have already done at the Special Olympics ” she added.

Special Olympics Philippines executive director Kaye Samson remarked, “We believe that youth leaders, through the examples of Brina and Sashi, can be powerful advocates in leading behavioural change in the society towards accepting and respecting our fellow Filipinos who have intellectual disabilities.” She added, “We also thank our friends from Essilor and Essilor Vision Foundation in supporting this event by setting up a booth and deploying a team of volunteers to check our athletes eyesight.”

Essilor Vision Foundation supports Phil.delegates for Special Olympics Brina Maxino and Sashi Montana

Special Olympics is a global movement of people who want to improve the lives of people with intellectual disabilities.

The most inspirational event for the people with intellectual disabilities will happen on July 23-28 at Los Angeles, California.


Essilor Vision foundation supports the World Games Special Olympics 2015 on July 23-28, 2015 which will take place at  Los Angeles, California and features the  lead Philippine delegates Brina Maxino and Sashi Montaňa as co-chairs last July 15 at Contis, Greenbelt 1.


 The summit aims to gather youth leaders who will generate and implement actionable ideas that can educate, motivate and activate individuals, particularly the youth, towards accepting and including people with intellectual disabilities in community life and activities.

“Eye Can Play: A Healthy Eyeffair,” which uses an “edutainment” approach to help Special Olympics athletes, their caregivers and their families learn more about the importance of healthy vision. “Eye Can Play: A Healthy Eyeffair” will make use of vision test and hand-eye coordination activities like interactive computer games, puzzles, giant word search, like ring toss and balloon darts to help discover any eyesight problems in the athletes that may require vision solutions

Essilor Vision Foundation, in support of the World Games Special Olympics 2015, emphasizes the importance of healthy vision in sports and in helping intellectually challenged individuals work towards making critical social changes, fighting discrimination and intolerance; and generating acceptance in the community.

“Healthy vision is critical for every individual, including intellectually challenged persons who, like many of us, have aspirations and goals in life.  Helping them see the world better can make a huge difference in what and how much they can achieve. This is the reason why Essilor is a huge supporter of Special Olympics. We’re happy to support the Special Olympics Social Impact Summit where our Philippine delegates can participate and share ideas on how to achieve critical changes in society,” says Dr. Emelita Roleda, Essilor Philippines general manager.

During the Social Impact Summit, 12 mentors—including professional athletes, entrepreneurs and social innovators—from Special Olympics partner organizations will train the youth leaders of Generation Unified on interviewing, public speaking and presentation. These youth leaders will gain an in-depth look into the challenges facing people with intellectual disabilities and how to equip themselves to influence change. As the finale of this six-day Summit, the top projects will be pitched to a star-studded panel of judges, who will select a project to execute based on the level of innovation and potential impact on generating acts of acceptance and inclusion in their communities. The Summit will end with a presentation of the Generation Unified Manifesto, which is a declaration of social change by the youth leaders of Generation Unified.

For the Social Impact Summit, Sashi and Brina are presenting . This project will be one of many to be presented during the 2015 Social Impact Summit that will integrate Special Olympics’ Opening Eyes program, which gives vision and eye health screening for Special Olympics athletes. Support for Sashi, Brina and their project “Eye Can Play: A Healthy Eyeffair” can be seen in social media, through fan signs with the hashtag “#EyeSupportSashiBrina”, the official Social Impact Summit hashtag “#SOGenUin”, and the hashtag for key supporter “#EssilorPH”.

Brina and Sashi’s “Eye Can Play: A Healthy Eyeffair” shares the same thrust with Essilor Philippines in improving lives by improving sight. The focus of “Eye Can Play” is on Special Olympics athletes who rely heavily on their eyesight during competitions. The games and activities of the fair are geared towards identifying and solving any vision problems they may encounter, given that research shows that people with intellectual disabilities are 10 times more likely to develop long-term vision problems. In the same way, the global Essilor campaign ‘Seeing the World Better’ seeks to raise public awareness on the importance of healthy vision and make everyone act upon protecting and valuing their eyes.

With the help of Essilor Vision Foundation, the 2015 Special Olympics-Social Impact Summit will change the way people see individuals with intellectual disabilities, and make a great leap towards universal social acceptance and inclusion in schools and communities.
Essilor has been supporting Special Olympics for more than 10 years by providing athletes with prescription eyewear, protective sports eyewear and important health counseling on proper eye health and vision care to more than 100,000 athletes. Special Olympics is the world’s largest sports organization that fosters acceptance and inclusion of all people, regardless of ability or disability, through the power of sports.

Essilor supports Philippine ambassadors of this year’s Social Impact Summit

Essilor Vision Foundation has joined non-profit humanitarian organization Special Olympics in support of the country’s chosen ambassadors Sashi Montana (fifth from left) and Brina Maxino (sixth from left) in this year’s Social Impact Summit, a six-day summit  designed to generate critical change around  pressing issues facing people with intellectual disabilities. The delegates recently visited Essilor’s Manila office to meet with executives of the brand and discuss activities for the upcoming event.

Photo shows (from left): Special Olympics-Philippines Head Coach Kaye Samson, Essilor Philippines General Manager Dr. Emelita Roleda, Essilor Vision Foundation Director of Communications Laura Viscovich, Essilor Vision Foundation ASEAN Head Yvonne Siow, Special Olympics International Director of Operations for Asia Pacific Simon Koh, Essilor Philippines Marketing Manager Jinky Navo and Essilor Philippines General Manager-Commercial Dr. Kyle Galias