Durban North organisation helps learners look to a brighter future
The Domino Foundation arranged for the African Eye Institute to give free eye tests to 116 learners.
THE Domino Foundation’s Life Skills programme, which works with a primary school north of Durban, saw the need for 116 learners to receive eye screenings and spectacles.
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As the organisation has a good relationship with the African Eye Institute (AEI), they recently arranged for a team to provide eye tests for the learners, all a part of their One School at a Time project.
Thobile Msani, head of Domino Foundation’s Life Skills programme, talked about how the children’s lives would be impacted by their clearer vision of the world around them.
“A lot of these learners have many challenges which have negative effects on their ability to really benefit from their schooling. Children with poor eyesight find it harder to identify and interpret what they are seeing which creates difficulties in much of their education,” she said.
She explained that the spectacles not only mean the children can now see the board more clearly but that better vision helps learners’ brains take in, organise and interpret information. Some children have close-up vision deficiencies which can affect hand-eye coordination and delay reading and language skills development.
AEI’s head of programmes, Nad Ramsarup, described how his organisation has been providing free vision screening to hundreds of underprivileged schoolchildren.
“We don’t only provide spectacles but also refer some children to hospitals if further intervention is needed.”
He said that 121 Ekuthuleni pupils had been identified for extra care and treatment for vision problems.
The OSaaT programme’s large-scale school screenings would not be possible without its sponsoring partners: Berkeley Vision, CooperVision, OneSight EssilorLuxottica Foundation, Transitions, Optometry Giving Sight and Peek Vision.
For more details, contact nad@aei.org.za.
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