Helping children see clearly in the developing world

It is estimated that there are up to 2 billion people in the developing counties who require some form of vision correction to see clearly. Of this over 800million are school-aged children. The vast majority of these people do not have access to eye examinations or pair of glasses because there just aren’t enough optometrists and the glasses are too expensive anyway.

This can have a damaging effect on children’s education, with those with poor vision having increased school absenteeism, reduced ability to learn and poorer career prospects.

To address this problem eye care experts and education specialists have been developing, trialling and honing a new generation of affordable self-adjustable glasses which will enable children in the most resource poor areas to see clearly.

Key Resources

• Report of the 2nd Oxford Conference on Vision for Children in the Developing World
• Declaration from the 2nd Oxford Conference on Vision for Children in the Developing World
• The Child Self-Refraction Study: Results from Urban Chinese Children in Guangzhou (Journal of Ophthalmology)