Prescription eyeglasses help a brother and sister keep up in school

A young boy, wearing eyeglasses, sits in his classroom, surrounded by his peers
Written by Ashley Anderson, published on September 10, 2021 Give the Gift of Sight
Sulemana sits in class wearing his new eyeglasses, thanks to our donors’ support of our eye screening programs.

Sulemana (8) lives in Rama, Ghana. The youngest of seven children, he’s an active child, busy playing with his siblings and attending school. Although Sulemana has always been a good student, his teacher noticed that he was making increasingly frequent mistakes when trying to copy lessons or respond to questions written on the blackboard. His teacher reported it to Sulemana’s father, who was not surprised because one of Sulemana’s sisters also struggled with her vision. However, although he worried about their education and their future, he didn’t know where to go to seek medical attention for either of his children.

Several weeks later, their local community centre announced that an Operation Eyesight outreach team would soon be visiting their town to conduct free eye screenings. Sulemana’s father took him and his sister to the screening, where they were both diagnosed with refractive error and given a pair of custom prescription eyeglasses. Now, Sulemana and his sister can see the blackboard and participate with their peers, and he knows that his vision impairment won’t stand in the way of his future.

Fortunately for Sulemana, an outreach team visited his village before his vision got worse and he fell too far behind in school. However, many children across the countries where we work also struggle with their vision and do not have access to nearby eye health services. With your support, we can expand our outreach services to ensure that no children are left behind due to an avoidable vision impairment.