A Cebu City-based charitable foundation will conduct a humanitarian mission in Benguet that will benefit more than 5,000 people on Sunday, Oct. 23.

Semi Di Speranza Foundation Inc. (SDSFI), in partnership with the Filipino Family Club International Inc. (FFCII), has collaborated with four local government units for the charity activity.

Chili Tita Cabatingan, founder of SDSFI, said the charity drive will provide free eye checkup, eyeglasses, and wheelchairs.

“This humanitarian effort will be held at Kapangan Municipal Gym, Barangay Lomon, Kapangan, Benguet and is expected to benefit more than 5,000 people,” Cabatingan said.

Cabatingan disclosed that six months after the foundation launched optical missions, more work needs to be done to achieve proper eye health for Filipinos.

Citing the Philippine National Blindness Survey and Eye Disease Study, Cabatingan said there are nearly 400,000 Filipinos with uncorrected errors of refraction. Some 3.4 million had undiagnosed errors of refraction, she added.

Despite the growing number of Filipinos with poor vision, people still do not prioritize eye health, Cabatingan lamented.

“In fact, two in three Filipinos wait for atypical symptoms in their eyes before they visit an optometrist. Or they only have their eyes checked when they could not see clearly,” Cabatingan said.

To give their constituents much-needed help, Cabatingan said Mayors Manny Fermin, Cesar Molitas, Armando Lauro, and Franklin Smith of the towns of Kapangan, Libungan, Tublay, and Atok, respectively, reached out to SDSFI through the FFCII led by businessman Francis Leo Marcos.

Cabatingan thanked Marcos and his organization for supporting their humanitarian missions.

The humanitarian mission in Benguet is the third of SDSFI outside Cebu.

Prior to Benguet, the foundation held its third mega humanitarian mission in Castilla, Sorsogon and also conducted an optical mission in Valencia, Negros Oriental.