The College of Optometrists

Imagine a country the size of France, with a population of 70m, but without a single optician. This is the extraordinary situation in Ethiopia, which is just one of the great challenges taken up by everyone at Vision Aid Overseas and its director, Tym Marsh.

The plight of Ethiopia, as well as other countries in Africa, is the major focus for the charity’s recycled specs programme, which sees thousands of pairs of old specs changing the lives of people who have not been able to earn a living for years.

“The marvellous thing is that our dedicated volunteers can transform someone’s life from being blind to sighted for the price of a glass of wine,” said Tym.

Drawing together some of the charity’s many supporters at Optrafair, he praised them for their continued support of VAO’s work in the poorest African countries, as well as India and Eastern Europe (picture shows from left Sir Anthony Garrett, General Secretary ABDO; Paul Surridge, Chief Executive Sightcare Group; Roger McLaren, Managing Director, Silhouette; Frank Norville, Chairman, The Norville Group, with Tym Marsh and Jeremy Jalie of VAO).

Celebrating seven years with the charity, Tym has
built on the success of his predecessors. He has seen it grow from some eight projects per year, involving 50 volunteers, to the current rate of 24 projects a year, involving 160 volunteers. In that period the spectacles dispensed have risen from about 10,000 per year to a staggering 35,000. In addition, training and workshop activities are expanding to enable the target countries to become more self-sufficient. The ultimate objective is that they should be able to help themselves.

“Besides this, we try to link up each project with a medical/surgical referral system so that patients requiring treatment for medical conditions or surgery for cataracts can receive it. Sadly medical infrastructure in some countries is so poor that it is not always possible,” he said.

“At the moment, the charity is making real progress and expanding steadily. We are building on the firm foundations laid during the first few years of the charity’s existence, and we are determined that we shall help more patients every year. But we shall need to raise the funds to cover the increased activity,” he added.

To achieve this growth VAO needs first class support from everyone in the world of optics.

“We also need to step up the work to raise our profile and we have just appointed our first Marketing and Press Officer, whose job it will be to raise awareness across the board,” added Tym.

“Our PR is obviously hitting the target because this year we received amazing cheques for £40,000, and £10,000 out of the blue from people we had not heard of before. We also received £10,000 from Celtic Football Club!”

The combination of increased funds and more and more professionally qualified volunteers means that 2007 is almost certain to be the best year ever for VAO.

“The countries in which we work are incredibly poor and the loss of sight leads to great hardship. It is difficult to comprehend until you have been there. To take the Ethiopia example again, it has virtually no healthcare, few raw materials, no oil, no outlet to the sea and limited agricultural products.”

One of the most extreme prescriptions ever encountered by VAO was -36.00D.
“The volunteers concerned were able to provide a pair of -24.00D specs – not ideal but a vast improvement for the patient. Every team returns with dramatic stories such as grandmothers, who are blind, led in by their grandsons, and a few minutes later they see them for the first time.

“Tailors, potters, craftsmen, teachers and mothers have all been unable to work because of the lack of specs, but after twenty minutes VAO is able to change all of that. The delight on the faces of these people is something that our volunteers never forget,” he added.

VAO volunteers undertake a day’s training before embarking on the two week project and return with a feeling of deep satisfaction at the way they have been able to help so many people.

“In addition they expand their professional experience by encountering conditions seldom seen in the UK including Trachoma and River Blindness, as well as familiar conditions in their advanced stages. All this means that a VAO project leaves an indelible impression on every volunteer and is why so many return to Africa year after year,” added Tym.