Glasses for kids in Guatemala

Hi. My name is Nadeem Ali, and I'm a Consultant Ophthalmologist in London. I’m planning to travel with a team of orthoptist and optometrist colleagues to a charity school in Guatemala in May 2023. We aim to do vision screening on all the schoolkids (over 400) and glasses tests for those who fail the screening. We will then supply glasses from the UK for those who need them. This trip was planned in 2019 but postponed several times due to covid.

The team is:

Nadeem Ali, Consultant Ophthalmologist, Moorfields Eye Hospital

Michelle Brown - Orthoptist, Gibraltar Health Authority

Rhiannon Brooks - Orthoptist, Moorfields Eye Hospital

Courtney Powdrill - Orthoptist, Moorfields Eye Hospital

Jess Fielding - Optometrist, Moorfields Eye Hospital

Devika Patel - Optometrist, Moorfields Eye Hospital

Guatemala is a small country in Central America. Almost half the people in Guatemala live in poverty. The poverty rate rises to nearly 80 per cent for indigenous people, who comprise more than 40 per cent of the country’s population. Guatemala has the highest levels of childhood stunting in Latin America and the sixth highest in the world.

ETFC (Education for the Children), a UK-based registered charity, was founded in 2003 to provide hope to children in the town of Jocetenango, about an hour from the capital city of Guatemala. Since establishing its School of Hope, it has provided free high-quality primary and middle school education to thousands of local children, all funded by charitable donations. I have met the staff, and they are amazing people. It takes a holistic approach and offers nutrition, healthcare and social support in addition to education. For many of the children who attend, the only hot meal of the day they get is at school, and they take clean drinking water from the school back to their homes. The children at the school do not get eye tests as the families cannot afford glasses even if needed.

This is where our partnership comes in! My team of three orthoptists and two optometrists, all experts in testing kids, will spend a week in Guatemala and aim to test every kid in the school. We will then take the prescriptions of those who need glasses back to the UK. We are grateful to Rawlings Opticians in Croydon and Hoya Lens UK who have kindly offered to supply the glasses for free.

The other trip costs are currently borne by the members of my team, who are already volunteering their time. We would be very grateful for your support if you would like to contribute to this effort. Any excess funds from this trip will help fund future trips, buy equipment we can leave there, or sponsor kids at the school.