Nahuleswary Vasudevan Spectacles Program – Free Spectacles to School Children

Assist Resettlement & Renaissance (Assist RR, UK & SL) has recently embarked on the above project, which is funded by Alaka Foundation, Malaysia, through Assist RR. This project aims to provide free spectacles to school children from Grade 1 to 12, who are identified as having refractive errors. This is currently being piloted in Jaffna District and will be extended to other districts in the northern province. Education and Health departments of Northern Provincial Council (NPC) are coordinating this project in collaboration with the Eye Unit, Teaching Hospital Jaffna and Assist RR (SL).

Preliminary eye screening of school children are being conducted by school teachers and Public Health Inspectors (PHI) under the guidance of Medical Officers of Health (MOH) and Regional Directors of Health Services (RDHS) in collaboration with the Zonal Directors of Education (ZDE). After the preliminary screening, children identified as having refractive issues, are then referred to Jaffna Teaching Hospital Optometricians, who visit schools to carry out further tests. Following these tests, children needing refractive corrections are prescribed with spectacles. These prescriptions are collated by the Optometricians and given to Assist RR, who then purchase the spectacles and distribute them to school children with the support of ZDEs and MOHs. So far, nearly 1000 spectacles have been distributed in Sanganai, Karaveddy and Point Pedro educational zones. Teachers told us that many children do not wear spectacles because they can’t afford to buy them.

This project is much appreciated by the parents, teachers, and education and health officials. We are convinced this will improve the education of children, who otherwise would fail in their education due to refractive issues. Most of these children were not wearing spectacles when they were screened. We are so grateful to founders of Alaka Foundation, Mr Brahmal Vasudevan and Mrs Shanthi Kandiah for funding this project. They both visited us and inaugurated the distribution of spectacles on 11th September at Chulipuram Victoria College.

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