“There is writing on that blackboard!”
“Hey, those people on stage have features on their faces!”
“I don’t really have to read the newspaper from across the room!”
These are common enough reactions to a new pair of eyeglasses, especially to that first prescription. But in many parts of the world—and for many people in this country—the cost of prescription eyeglasses is prohibitive.
When Jeffrey Lynch travelled to Peru in 2006 as a medical student on a mission trip to perform eye surgeries, he realized that most of the people who came to the clinic with eye problems just needed eyeglasses. However, in the area he visited, only the wealthy could afford to have their prescriptions filled. In fact, the World Health Organization estimates that about 280 million people in the world have low vision (moderate to severe impairment) and that glasses could correct the sight of more than half of them.
Many medical missions travel with boxes of donated eyeglasses, but the chance of finding a pair of glasses in those boxes with correct prescription match and acceptable style frames is slim.
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