Phindile is a bright little girl. At 11 years old she, like so many little girls her age, aspires to be a famous actor.

At her primary school in South Africa Phindile was having difficulty reading her school work and seeing the board. ICEE optometrists and ICEE trained eye care personnel have been visiting schools in South Africa as part of the KwaZulu-Natal Child Eye Care Programme. The programme provides children in underserved communities with eye care that they may not have access to otherwise.

To date ICEE have screened the vision of 228,007 school children, like Phindile, and provided glasses to all who required them.

Because of her vision problem Phindile’s reading was suffering and her distance vision was also causing her problems. With a pair of glasses supplied by ICEE, Phindile’s teacher noticed tremendous improvements in her school work and a remarkable change in her behaviour.

“Fortunately ICEE came along and everything took off from there for her… now that Phindile has glasses she is showing a lot of confidence and is a lot happier,” her teacher said.

ICEE optometrist, Sabera, who was involved in delivering eye care to Phindile’s school, said, “It touches the heart…the kids haven’t had an eye test ever. The testing is being done at the right time because this is where the development occurs. The right stage to pick it up [vision problems] is at primary school level – so it is perfect,” she said.

The International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) reports that approximately 90 per cent of children with uncorrected vision impairment who live in low-income countries, are deprived of education. Sadly, these children will not have the same opportunities and future economic advantages as children with good vision.

Thanks to a simple pair of glasses Phindile now has the same opportunities as her classmates, the ability to excel at school and achieve her dream of becoming an actor.

The ICEE Giving Sight to Africa Programme is supported by ICEE donors of Australia, Institute for Eye Research, USAID, Standard Chartered Bank “Seeing is Believing”, Optometry Giving Sight and Discovery.