Emmanuel is a 12-year-old boy who wished he could go to school with the other children in his village but he had been nearly blind since birth. Emmanuel's cousin Yusuf, used to tell him stories about school.
One day, Yusuf learnt that his teacher had been trained in screening children's vision. He asked if his teacher could screen Emmanuel – and they discovered that he was not actually blind. He just had severe vision impairment, which could easily be corrected with an eye exam and glasses. Emmanuel and his mother cried when he realized he could see clearly for the first time.
A few weeks later, Emmanuel's mother happily made arrangements for her son to go to school – paving the way for a brighter future. After his first day of school, Emmanuel declared, "My life is now beautiful and so is everything in the world. I feel like my life can begin now."
Millions of school aged children around the world are needlessly vision impaired. This is a critical time in a child’s development with as much as 80% of all learning being through the visual system. Failure to detect and correct vision problems can impact a child's educational attainment and social development. And yet the solution is simple and cost effective.
Optometry Giving Sight is working to help transform the lives of children through the gift of vision. We fund teacher-training programs like the one that helped Emmanuel. Our goal is to assist one million children over the next 12 months.
You can help us. Please pledge your support to help more children like Emmanuel to see their futures more clearly.
