Most parents prepare intensive learning programs to keep their kids on their toes during the long summer holidays. This year, six Mums and Dads from Hong Kong and Macau went one step further and treated their youngsters to a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to join our parent-child See-n-Feel Tour to Vietnam!

Arriving in Vietnam for the first time, our donors found the weather was unpleasantly hot and sticky. On their way to visit patients' homes in remote rural areas, young donors were asked to blindfold themselves and try to walk guided only by the voices of their parents. The kids subsequently bravely dodged cowpats and motorbikes as their anxious Mums and Dads did their best to help. "I now understand the fear blind people feel," said one young donor.

Coming from affluent cities, our six young donors probably never imagined blameless kids of their own age being needlessly condemned to lives of unending darkness. Take nine-year-old congenital strabismus sufferer, The Anh. When The Anh was just one, a doctor misdiagnosed his visual problem and told his parents the boy should only undergo surgery after his eighth birthday. Sadly, the delay caused The Anh's strabismus to become so severe no operation could ever cure it. Our young donors were horrified by The Anh's story and touched by the way the poor boy shrugged off his problems while happily sharing their sweets. If they could see The Anh's resigned smile, would youngsters in Hong Kong and Macau still yearn for iPads and electronic games?

Many of us who live in more materialistic cities like Hong Kong and Macau strive for wealth and fame every day. After their all-too-short five-day, four-night trip to Vietnam, parents on the tour said sharing the meaningful miracle of a sight-saving journey together had tightened their bonds to their kids. They now fully cherish and want to share their joy of sight. Six families have also become good friends as they are united by the same passion towards the blind. Said one donor, "I came here to help people to see but it was I who had my eyes opened and my horizons broadened."

We cordially invite you and your kids to become ORBIS "Kids Sight Friends" monthly donors and experience our 2012 See-n-Feel sight-saving journey!