Good eyes for the future – august 2021

During the summer vacation of 2021 the 120 children in Balta Albă, Buzău county were suffering the consequences of all those months when they had studied in front of a screen. Many of them were complaining of eyes fatigue, headaches and had troubles concentrating. We had already had contact with this community during previous projects, so we quickly realised that most of these children had never been to an eyesight control. They didn’t have this option, as there are no medical optics offices on a radius of 20-30 km around Balta Albă.

This shaped the mission of our project: to evaluate the eyesight of children from Balta Albă and the nearby village, Amara. On top of that, to close the circle of this good deed, we added the purpose of helping those diagnosed with eyesight problems to get the necessary eyeglasses.

Together with us, the Balta Albă City Hall and Optiline Vision from Buzău, the closest town, joined forces for two intense days. On the 7th and 8th of August we organised an ad-hoc optometric office in the Day Center of Balta Albă. Children aged 5 to 18 came to be evaluated, alone or together with their parents – shy at the beginning, but becoming more relaxed as we spoke to them and they met the optometrists. As they waited, we used the time to teach them, under the pretext of playing, about the importance of eyesight and the health of their eyes. We were happy to notice their desire to connect and learn in a non-formal, holidayish context. The specialists who evaluated them gave important information about what good eyes mean for their future and their future professions. The educative and interactive presentation that the children attended is available here.

After the optometric evaluation and the interactive activities, the children also received gifts: sweet spreads from Podravka International and story books from Asociația Curtea Veche.

A total of 67 children benefitted from the free optometric evaluations. Among them, 27 needed glasses to fix or stop their eyesight problems from advancing. We found that 68% of them had never had their eyes checked – thus having the confirmation that our project, ”Good eyes for the future”, met an essential need for the children’s health.

We started the project estimating that approximately 30% of the kids would need glasses. The results worried us: the real percentage proved to be 40%. With the generous help of our donors, all the 27 children diagnosed with eyesight problems got the necessary eyeglasses.

”Good eyes for the future” is proof that, when we get involved, a good deed can go a long way for a community. Little by little we follow our mission – no month without a good deed – to bring real changes to the world we live in.