Adult cataract operation
Jacinta Awanji, aged 11, being screened at St Anthony's Catholic Primary School in Cameroon.
£55
Your schools pack includes school screening and six pairs of spectacles.
School screening provides an effective way of picking up sight abnormalities in children early on.
Reaching children when they are young gives Sightsavers an improved chance of solving any problems and preventing sight loss.
Often children are ‘blind’ just because they lack a pair of spectacles, regular screening will ensure that any sight problems are picked up early so they don’t fall behind at school.
The gift you’ve been given can provide screening for one school and spectacles for six children. Thank you.
Eye care:
Your gift will contribute to projects which restore sight and prevent sight loss.
See your gift in action
At the National Comprehensive High School in Cameroon school screening day is a big exercise to screen all the children. Pictured is one of the classes with mixed students aged 10-15, all with hair cut closely to their heads and dressed smartly in a school uniform of white shirts and blue trousers or skirts.
On the blackboard at the front of the room has been fastened an eye test of letters and shapes, and a piece of rope is used to measure a distance of six metres from the blackboard.
The testing gets underway, with students sitting in the allocated seat six metres from the blackboard, covering one eye with the palm of their hand and calling out the letters that are pointed to, before changing to the other eye.
Each student must sit at this distance in order to perform their test. Anyone with a visual acuity of less than 6/9 is given a piece of paper inviting their parents to come and talk to the school principle, with the objective of referring the student to the optometrist.
There will be no consultation fee at the hospital if the parents are willing to proceed with further investigations often it will be a simple case of the student needing to wear glasses.