Ethiopia

​Girl with OneDollarGlasses | ©Barbara DeCarlo

ODG Brazil - Facts

  • Started work: 2014
  • More than 200,000 vision tests performed
  • Over 62,000 people provided with glasses
  • 25 employees on site
  • Main location: São Paolo
  • Eye camps in the favelas and the Amazon
  • 3 social-optics shops
  • Project name: Renovatio
Basic data - Brazil
  • Population: 210 million
  • Population density: 25,6 inhabitants per km2
  • GDP per inhabitant: USD 1,868
  • 22% of school drop-outs due to children's sight defects

ODG Bolivia - Facts

  • Started work: 2014
  • Over 66,000 people provided with glasses
  • Over 100,000 vision tests performed
  • 25 local employees
  • Main location: Santa Cruz
  • Eye camps with mobile optical unit
  • Central production for South America: 75,000 frames manufactured
  • Project name: Lentes al Instante (Bolivia)
Basic data - Bolivia
  • Population: 12 million
  • Population density: 10,8 inhabitants per km2
  • GDP per inhabitant: USD 3,625

ODG Malawi - Facts

  • Started working: 2014
  • Over 44,000 people provided with glasses
  • More than 135,000 vision tests performed
  • Main location: Lilongwe
  • 34 employees on site
  • Around 1,200 eye-camps
  • Four eyewear centers
  • Project name: GoodVision (Malawi)
Basic data - Malawi
  • Population: 20 million
  • Population density: 203 inhabitants per km2
  • GDP per inhabitant: USD 431 (rank 174 of 189)

ODG Burkina Faso - Facts

  • Started working: 2013
  • Over 87,000 people provided with glasses
  • More than 222,000 vision tests performed
  • 70 employees on site
  • Central production in Ouagadougou (capital)
  • More than 20 spectacle centres as permanent contact points
  • Project name: GoodVision (Burkina Faso)
Basic data - Burkina Faso
  • Population: 20 million
  • Population density: 76 inhabitants per km2
  • GDP per inhabitant: USD 790 (rank 182 of 189)

ODG India - Facts

  • Started working: 2017
  • Over 40,000 people provided with glasses
  • More than 120,000 vision tests performed
  • about 90 employees on site
  • Headquarter in the state of Odisha
  • Over 2,700 eye camps with small mobile teams
  • Project name: CARE Netram
Basic data - India
  • Population: 1.4 billion
  • Population density: 464 inhabitants per km2
  • GDP per inhabitant: USD 1,965

ODG Peru - Facts

  • Started working: 2019
  • Over 8,000 people provided with glasses
  • Main location: Lima
  • Eye-camps in the poor outskirts of Lima and numerous peruvian regions
  • Project name: Lentes al Instante (Perú)
Basic data - Peru
  • Population: 33 million
  • Population density: 25 inhabitants per km2
  • GDP per inhabitant: USD 6,700
  • About one third of the population lives in the region Lima
  • Peru is geographically the third largest country in South America

ODG Kenya - Facts

  • Started working: 2014
  • Main location: Nairobi
  • Project name: Tuone Vizuri Miwani, GoodVision (Kenia)
Basic data - Kenya
  • Population: 50 million
  • Population density: 95 inhabitants per km2
  • PDP per inhabitant: USD 2,000

ODG Myanmar - Facts

  • Started working: 2018
  • Over 10,000 people provided with glasses
  • Headquarters: Pyimana Township NayPyiTaw
  • Project responsibility: OneDollarGlasses Switzerland
  • 2019: Foundation of an own organization
  • Project name: GoodVision (Myanmar)
Basic data - Myanmar
  • Population: 53 million
  • Population density: 82 inhabitants per km2
  • GDP per inhabitant: USD 1,400 (147 of 189)

Ehtiopia - Facts

  • Started working: 2013
  • Working with Alem Katema e.V. Partnership
  • Main location: Alem Katema, Region Amhara
  • One Dollar Glasses production and optical tests
Basic Data - Ehtiopia
  • Population: 100 million inhabitants
  • Population density: 95 inhabitants per km2
  • GDP per inhabitan: 950 USD

Ethiopia: More than 80 languages

With over 110 million inhabitants, Ethiopia is the most populous landlocked country in the world. In the multinational state in which over 80 different languages are spoken, the majority of people live from agriculture.

At the end of 2013, OneDollarGlasses trained employees of the ENAT hospital in Alem Katema in cooperation with the association “Partnership with Alem Katema e.V.” in the manufacture of OneDollarGlasses and the performance of eye tests. Alem Katema is a small town in the Amhara region. Thanks to the joint commitment, the entire ophthalmological care in the ENAT hospital has made considerable progress.

Landscape at the Jemma trench, Amhara region | © Rosina Kefer-Lüdeke

Production of glasses | © Helmut Schmidt

Training | © Helmut Schmidt

Eye camps and education

Since then, eye camps and awareness campaigns have been carried out in Alem Katema. It is very important to educate the local population because people who wear glasses are often stigmatized as disabled and there is often a lack of awareness of uncorrected ametropia.

Theoretical training of clinic staff | © Helmut Schmidt

Training in ophthalmology

In the meantime, one of our first eyewear manufacturers was able to successfully complete his bachelor’s degree in ophthalmology after more than three years of training. This means that eye diseases can now also be treated at the ENAT Hospital.

Mengistu Feleke examines a patient | © Jo Neunert

Our projects worldwide

Today we are active in eight countries worldwide.
Our goal: Establishment of an optical basic care for everyone.

Brasil

Bolivia

Malawi

Burkina Faso

India

Peru

Kenia

Myanmar

Colombia

Liberia

“Without the glasses, I didn’t know if there was a man or a woman in front of me.”

63-year-old Amado Yameogoia (-7 diopters), Burkina Faso