Winston Barrett (left), president of the Lion's Club of Kingston, speaks with Father Ralston Smith, assistant rector at St Margaret's Anglican Church, St Andrew, shortly before the start of a church service to launch White Cane Month on Sunday. - Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer

The Lions Club of Jamaica will embark on an islandwide drive in an effort to register every visually impaired and blind person for a national databank.

Winston Barrett, president of the Lions Club of Kingston, which is spearheading the project, told The Gleaner on Sunday that the registration drive would be the organisation's biggest task during White Cane Month, which is being commemorated in March.

After launching White Cane Month on Sunday at St Margaret's Anglican Church on Old Hope Road in St Andrew, Barrett said the registration drive would be in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Environment.

"We will seek to register all the visually impaired and the blind persons in Jamaica. We recognise that these statistics were never readily available in Jamaica," Barrett said.

He claimed that the lack of statistics, regarding the visually impaired and the blind, has restricted the club's ability to get adequate funding for past projects with regard to White Cane Month.

The Lions Club registration project is being funded by the Culture, Health, Arts, Sports and Education Fund, Barrett said.

Many of the club's members have been trained in research and interview skills by the Planning Institute Of Jamaica in order to accurately and professionally execute the registration project.

The Lions Club of Jamaica is also working closely with the Jamaica Society for the Blind and the Adult Blind Club of Jamaica in executing the project.

Other major activities planned in commemoration of White Cane Month include an official launch tomorrow at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston, as well as eye-screening tests across the island.