School stories
All over the world, children leave school early because they cannot see properly. The chances of a lifetime can be lost due to the lack of simple glasses.
Schoolgirl Burkina Faso | © Martin Aufmuth
School stories
First grader
In the Matandani School in Malawi, 220 first graders sit on the floor of their classroom. The teacher complains: “The children in the first three rows never pay attention, they just look out the window.” The eye test shows that many children need glasses. The children are now laughing happily with their new glasses.
Practice together
The OneDollarGlasses team (here in Malawi) goes to schools and does an eye test in turn with each child. First the team practices together with everyone.
First eye test
The children have never had an eye test in their life. The tension is correspondingly high.
Adjustment of glasses
Then the glasses – in the desired color – are correctly adjusted.
Finally write yourself
This student from a very poor school in Zomba (Malawi) tells us that she could never do her homework herself because she could not see. Her friend read everything to her and wrote down the answers for her. It was not entirely clear which of the two was happier about the glasses.
Almost blind with over 6 diopters
Thalia Silver Quartra (14) from Brazil volunteered to help us admit patients for a whole day. By the end of the campaign, we happened to find that she saw almost nothing.
Thalia wants to be a doctor
The eye test showed +7 and +8 diopters. When she put on the glasses, she was strangely touched, but then increasingly enthusiastic, because it was suddenly so easy to see. She said she had always had a headache. Thalia would like to be a doctor later, she said.
Dalia
Dalia (10) lives with her mother and brother in a small hut in the “Villa Nova Esperanza” favela on the outskirts of São Paolo (Brazil). Her brother Hobson (17) has been working in eyewear production for some time. He saves the money and wants to study geography one day.
In the favela
“Villa Nova Esperanza” means “City of New Hope”
Proud of her brother
Today Dalia wore her new glasses for the first time in school. She is totally proud of her big brother. She says: “Nobody in my school believed that the new glasses my brother made himself.”
Photos: Martin Aufmuth; story: Martin Aufmuth