Phelophepa Train offers 2-week trip to Africa as prize in donation drive

New York-The American Friends of the Phelophepa Train (AFPT) are launching their first first-ever Eye Clinic Donation Drive to raise funds for the purchase of 50,000 pairs of eyeglasses to be dispensed at the eye clinic on board 18-car trains that travel throughout South Africa delivering primary healthcare services to under-served villagers.

The Donation Drive offers the opportunity to win a 14-day trip to South Africa for two people valued at $40,000, including a day on-board the Phelophepa Train. For every $5 donation, donors will be entered into a sweepstakes drawing to win this luxury trip.

The objective of this fundraising drive is to raise awareness that nearly two thirds of all blindness in rural Africa is avoidable through early detection, prevention, and management programs to reduce the impact of visual impairment. The goal of this campaign is to fund the purchase of 50,000 pairs of eyeglasses that the train dispenses each year and to raise money to support the cataract, refractive, and glaucoma treatment programs provided by Phelophepa.

The Phelophepa Train has served more than 14.5 million people and distributed more than 500,000 pairs of eyeglasses since it began operating in 1994. In a country where 80% of people have inadequate access to eyecare services and where more than 100 people go blind every day due to preventable causes, Phelophepa has become known as the Train of Hope.