Dubai: An 11-year-old Kenyan student of Kings’ School Dubai has started a project to provide free prescription eyeglasses for poor students in Western Kenya.
Vansh Gadhia, who is in Year 6, started Sight for Kids in partnership with Al Jaber Optical in the UAE and the Lions Club and Sabatia Eye Hospital in Kenya.
The project will assist hundreds of needy children who have vision correction problems. In Kenya, it is estimated that one in 10 kids have vision correction issues. With many people living on less than $1 a day, this project will support children from families living under the poverty line.
Under the project, Al Jaber Optical will provide the frames and create tailor-made lenses while Sabatia hospital will conduct eye tests and deliver the results to Al Jaber Optical. Eye Vue Optician in Kenya will provide all the logistics from the UAE to Kenya.
The official inauguration ceremony of the project was held in October at the Dubai offices of Al Jaber Optical, which has already purchased 500 new frames for the beneficiaries.
Gadhia said: “It is true that education requires a teacher but without proper eyesight even the teacher would fail to deliver education.”
Bede Higgins, principal of Kings’ School Dubai, said: “We are incredibly proud of Vansh and his entrepreneurial spirit as well as his desire to contribute to solving worldwide issues. At Kings’ we are fully supportive of such philanthropic projects and he is an inspiration to all children.”
Vansh is now embarking on the second phase of this project that will involve fund-raising for Sabatia hospital’s requirements for hand-held auto-refractors and other testing and logistical requirements.
