Finally, some very good news to report about the restarting of our CMIRC Children’s Vision Screening Project for poor children in Chiang Mai. We plan to provide vision screening for all 3rd and 5th grade students at the eleven Tessaban (Municipal) Schools in Chiang Mai, where the poorest families send their children, beginning in the fall semester of 2020.
We estimate that during the 2020-2021 school year our CMIRC team will screen close to 700 students and then our optician team Khun One (Wen One Optical Shops) and Khun Wut at St. Peter’s Eye Hospital will examine those identified to have problems, write prescriptions, and fit lenses to frames. For those students who are identified to have near or distance visual acuity problems, CMIRC will provide lenses, frames, and fittings at no charge to the students’ families.
This program is being made possible by the very generous donation from the Rotary Club of Spokane#21; their gift to the children of Chiang Mai will cover all costs with the exception of the children’s frames. One thousand, high quality New Balance children’s frames have been donated by Eyewear Designs Limited of Bethpage, NY, USA.
We are very excited to get started and those with experience in past Rotary vision screening programs will be training new members very soon. From past experience, we estimate that at least 70 students will receive glasses this year, and we know that better vision will enable recipients to greatly improve their school achievement.