Jaiya's ESight Glasses
ESight glasses are a computerized pair of glasses that take pictures of what you are looking at and puts it all together right in front of your eyes, on a small screen on the inside of the glasses for the visually impaired and legally blind.
Everyone who knows Jaiya, knows that she doesn't let anything stop her. If you don't know Jaiya, you would never be able to tell something was a little different about her besides she has the sweetest old soul of a peacemaker. But when it comes to seeing the details of everyday life and school, she struggles in every aspect. Jaiya was born with Optic Nerve Hypoplasia (ONH). That means her optic nerve didn't form, very early on, as a fetus. Jaiya has 75% less optic nerves in her right eye and 90% less optic nerves in her left eye than a normal person. At about 6 months old we noticed her eyes were still shaking, kind of like a newborn who hadn't learned to control the eye muscles yet. We had an MRI and it showed Jai had ONH causing a nystagmus(unstable shaking of the eyes) and massive visual impairment. At that time our pediatrician and opthalmologist said there was nothing to do but wait.... For 3 years we waited. We finally decided that Jaiya needed a second opinion on her eyes. We got her first pair of glasses but they didn't seem to do anything for her. Soon after, we moved from Nebraska to Arizona where we found an amazing pediatrician, who referred us to a phenomenal children's opthalmologist and an endocrinologist who wrote his college thesis statement on Jaiya's disorder. Come to find out, Jaiya had a few more unseen issues than we thought. We are now on two life long hormone replacement drugs.
We also found out Jaiya is legally blind. That doesn't mean she can't see, it just means she has very low visual field. Her vision is 20/400 in her better eye. So when she takes a vision test, the same one you and I take, that largest letter E at the top of the test is still extremely blurry and unreadable to her. Jaiya currently attends preschool at the Foundation for Blind Children but come August of 2017, she will go mainstream to a regular Kindergarten class. Jaiya currently uses a white cane to help her move about and not have to constantly look at the ground to make sure she won't trip or miss anything in her path. She also has a large magnifier she uses over pictures or words to enlarge them and a CCTV, which is a digital magnifier that we hook to a computer monitor and it magnifies everything laying under the magnifier itself.
For Jaiya, this pair of glasses will let her look at someone's whole face at one time instead of slowly scanning the whole face, having to remember what each part of the face looks like and putting the picture together in her head. These will help Jaiya see facial expressions of her family and friends. These glasses will help her lead a more normal life than she would ever be able to without them. A single pair of these glasses cost between $10,000 and $15,000. We are hoping to be able to raise enough money to buy Jaiya a pair of these. The money isn't going to just "another pair of glasses." These glasses will help with learning in school, seeing the chalk board from her seat, traveling around on her own and living the most normal life she possibly can.
In 5 short years of life, Jaiya can teach anyone how to see without their eyes. She can show you beauty without actually seeing it. She is the sweetest, Bob Marley loving old soul, you could ever meet. We want Jaiya to live life to the fullest. These ESight glasses will do just that for her!
Any amount of donation would be appreciated to the max! Jaiya's life will be changed for the better, help her get the education and lead the life she deserves.
