Spectacles for children

Eleven-year-old Sandani Jayamali could not see the blackboard from her seat, so the teacher put her at the front of the classroom. However she still  found it difficult to read small letters. Her mother, Anula, got her eyes checked and bought her glasses but after a while, the board was blurry again. Anula could not afford another check up and new glasses for her daughter, so Sandani’s grades began to suffer.

When Muslim Aid Sri Lanka (MASL) held a free eye camp in a school near Sandani’s hometown of Medagama, in the southern Moneragala district of Sri Lanka, she took the chance to have her eyes examined. The doctor prescribed stronger glasses, which Sandani has now received.

“It is a great help for us. If not for Muslim Aid, we would not have been able to get new glasses for my daughter,” said Anula, who has three other children to support. “There are a lot of poor children in this area, so this is a good thing for us.”

Moneragala is one of the poorest areas of the country. In Medagama, most breadwinners are farmers or labourers on other people’s land and they struggle to feed and educate their families.

Sixteen-year-old Anis was very pleased with his new glasses, which was sure would enable him to study better.

“I couldn’t see clearly and my eyes used to tear a lot if I read for too long. Now I can see much better than before,” said Anis, who was also diagnosed with long-sightedness at MASL’s eye camp and prescribed glasses by the doctor.

Anis’s father is a labourer who could not afford a pair of spectacles for his son. “I am very happy that Muslim Aid is helping us. I want to go be able to go to university and become a doctor,” he said.

Muslim Aid Sri Lanka (MASL) distributed spectacles to 81 disadvantaged students from 12 schools in the southern Moneragala district in October 2008 The students were detected as having vision problems by doctors at an eye camp conducted by MASL earlier.  Spectacles were then made for them.  MASL’s child blindness campaign, under its Women and Children’s Empowerment Programme, is carried out with its partner Appropriate Technology Group and in Moneragala with local partner MODIUM.