Help Vision Aid Overseas Bring Christmas Into Focus This December

Vision Aid Overseas is a charity and development agency, whose mission is to enable people living in poverty to access affordable glasses and eye care. They work in four main countries in Africa where they provide children and adults with glasses and eye care both through school-based projects and the Vision Centres that they have set up to provide people with tailor made glasses. Working with local authorities and governments, they strengthen local health care systems by training optical health professionals and focus on reaching remote communities.

How Do Vision Aid Overseas Make a Difference?

For brothers Alpha, 13, and David, 10, from Sierra Leone, both were doing well at school and they dreamed of becoming doctors or police officers when they got older. However, their eyesight began to decline, and they struggled to see what was written on the blackboard in school and when reading their textbooks at home. Their teachers and parents began to worry and their dreams for the future became uncertain.

Did you know there are 12 million children worldwide who struggle to learn simply because they are in need of glasses? Alpha and David were two of those children. Sierra Leone, where they live, is a poor country with only three qualified optometrists for a population of seven million people. Many children like Alpha and David have never had their eyes tested or had access to eye care.

What would your school life or work life be like if you did not have the glasses you needed to see clearly?

Happily, Alpha and David’s school was visited by one of the Vision Aid Overseas teams. All the children in the school were screened for vision problems and given eye tests and glasses if needed. Children with more serious issues were referred to the local hospital for further treatment. The excited brothers got to choose their own glasses frames, which were made up at one of the Vision Centres that Vision Aid Overseas set up. Alpha and David have the glasses they need and as a result, a brighter future!

“I can see so much clearer now. I hope to fulfil my dreams of becoming a police officer. I am so happy to see well.” – David, aged 10.

Cast Your Vote For Vision Aid Overseas This December

Between 2019 and 2020, Vision Aid Overseas gave over 15,000 people glasses, screened over 181,000 people for eye diseases and trained 330 professional eye care workers. They aim to create lasting change in the communities they serve, and they want to help many more people this December. You can support their mission by casting your vote for Vision Aid Overseas this December in our charity poll.

To find out more about Vision Aid Overseas’ life changing work, visit their website.