91热爆

Photo: Sisters Aster, left, and Yadate, right wearing their new glasses.

Now my eyes can see better with new eyeglasses than I used to before. I read well now and I’m excited.” – Yadate from Ethiopia

We are profoundly thankful to the amazing listeners of 91热爆 Radio 4, who raised an incredible £20,571 in response to our appeal, presented by Oti Mabuse, to help children affected by poverty in Africa get the eye care and spectacles they need to see clearly.
Around 80% of what a child learns is processed through the visual system, and yet 12 million children worldwide struggle to learn, simply because they need glasses. For every child being able to see clearly is important for their education, to read their textbooks and see blackboards, and for their future.

A 2019 report by the World Bank and EYElliance found that ‘children with visual impairments are falling behind in learning goals and school enrolment’ but that ‘school eye health programs, which provide vision screening and eyeglasses to children in schools, are a simple solution.’
Thanks to listeners support we have been able to carry out that simple solution in Ethiopia. So far, we have trained 40 teachers to screen their students for eye problems, from across 20 different schools in East Wollega, Oromia region of Ethiopia. This has meant we’ve screened over 8,800 children so far. These screenings were followed up by 16 visits from mobile eye clinics and as a result 639 children received eye drops, 69 were prescribed glasses, and 47 children were referred to hospital for further treatment.

Two children we have been able to help so far are Aster, seven, and her sister Yadate, nine. Their parents are farmers and they live in a rural area of the East Wollega zone.  The sisters had experienced problems with their eyesight for some time. 

Yadate said: “For Eye problem, I had a tearful and itchy eye, and can’t see at black board.”  Aster said: “It affected me negatively how I learn in classroom.”  Without access to eyecare the sisters were struggling at school and with chores at home. Happily, their vision was checked by a teacher, trained as part of Vision Aid Overseas’ School Eye Health project. The teacher was then able to refer the sisters to be seen by a Mobile Eye Clinic team when they next visited the school.  As a result, they were both given an eye exam and prescribed a life changing pair of spectacles.

Aster said: “I can see clearly in classroom now than I did without eyeglass. It has helped me a lot.”
Yadate said: “Now my eyes can see better with new eyeglasses than I used to before. I read well now and I’m excited.”

We would not be able to carry out our life changing work without the support and generosity of so many people. On behalf of everyone at Vision Aid Overseas - thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

If you would like to know more about our work please visit .