Not much to report this month since all of our CMIRC School Vision Screening Project (CMIRC SVSP) activities are municipal-school-based and all Thai municipal schools have been closed for warm season holidays in April.
The good news is that we are close to fully-funded for Rotary Year 2021-2022. However, now we have learned that school openings have been delayed due to a Covid-19 surge in Thailand. We hope schools will be able to reopen in June, but even if they do, the CMIRC SVSP involves large numbers of Rotarian, Interact and other volunteer screeners plus the Thai optician. During the process we all have close contact with an average of 100 children at each school we screen. So, the CMIRC Board supports delaying the start of the screening process this year until a sufficient number of screener volunteers have received vaccinations and have been immunized. This points to a program start probably in September of this year or even later, but even with a November start, we are confident we can complete screenings at all twelve schools we serve before the school year ends in March.
So, we are proceeding with planning for the 2021-2022 school year, probably beginning our screenings of 3rd and 5th graders in September or November (October is a school vacation period). The screenings this year will also include a follow-up examination with the children who received glasses in 2020 (most will be 4th and 6th-graders at the same schools) and then screen the new 3rd and 5th-graders at each of the twelve schools.
Finally, while our plans are coming together nicely for the 2021-2022 Rotary Year, we have not yet found full funding for the project. The program cost per prescription including the optician’s fees, frames, and lenses this past year was about 600 Baht (US$20); the glasses are provided for free to the children. The total program budget for next year is estimated at about US$3,000.
If you wish to learn how you can help, please contact Project Champion John Schorr at johnkschorr@gmail.com or tel.: 66 (0)8 5030 2143
Our 2020 School Vision Screening Donor Team: