Helen Keller International - ChildSight® Honored with Johnson & Johnson Community Health Award

Newark, NJ , May 1, 2006 – ChildSight® New Jersey, a program of Helen Keller International, was presented the Johnson & Johnson Community Health Care Crystal Award and a two-year $150,000 grant. Senator Patty Murray (D-Washington) honored the 2006 Community Health Care Program Awardees at an awards ceremony on Monday, April 24 in Washington, D.C. The Crystal Award recognizes organizations for their commitment to providing the medically underserved with innovative community health-based services.

ChildSight® New Jersey, which is headquartered in Newark, strives to eliminate the economic and social barriers that prevent children living in poverty from receiving proper eye care. Partnering with the public school districts of Newark, Jersey City, Plainfield, Passaic, and Irvington Township, the program helps disadvantaged children overcome obstacles to receiving vision care by providing free vision screenings and prescription eyeglasses to students between the ages of 10 and 15. Funding from the grant will help ChildSight® screen approximately 18,000 children, distribute more than 2,000 eyeglasses, refer approximately 180 children for follow-up treatment, and raise community and parental awareness of eye health.

“All of us at Helen Keller International are truly honored that our ChildSight® New Jersey program has been awarded a Community Health Care grant,” said Kindal Beckley, New Jersey program coordinator. “Not only does this award recognize the importance of eye care for the healthy development of children, it enables us to improve the vision and academic potential of New Jersey’s most vulnerable children. We’re looking forward to partnering with Johnson & Johnson, and to the technical assistance that the grant provides.”

In partnership with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the Community Health Care Program – which is fully underwritten by Johnson & Johnson – has awarded funding to nearly 150 pioneering organizations in 36 states and in Puerto Rico throughout its 19-year history. These organizations are recognized for their distinctive programs, offering innovative solutions to complicated health care challenges. The Johnson & Johnson Community Health Care Program is one of 11 “Signature Programs” that carries the Johnson & Johnson logo and exemplifies the Company’s longstanding Credo commitment to communities and social responsibility.

Accepting the award pictures below are:(top) Rick A. Martinez, M.D., Medical Director, Corporate Contributions and Community Relations and Director, Latin American Contributions, Johnson & Johnson; Sharon D’Agostino, Vice President, Worldwide Corporate Contributions and Community Relations, Johnson & Johnson; (bottom) Kindal Beckley, Program Coordinator for ChildSight® New Jersey; Nancy Smith Lione, Vice-chair, HKI Board of Trustees; and Nick Kourgialis, HKI Vice President for Eye Health.