Eye Glasses Program

Burmese eye testing chart. In Burma the letters of ba, ga, nga, and yaycha are used to test eyesight.

 

Years ago Neil Sowards was visiting the Shan State Bible School and the students sang for him. He noticed a number of them were squinting as they read their music.  Then he realized that not one of them was wearing glasses.  It seemed unusual for there to be forty students and none needed glasses.  Later he learned that a good number needed glasses but they cost $12 for an examination and prescription eyeglasses.  That was about what a student could earn in one month.  They simply could not afford them.

So he started a program to pay for examinations and eyeglasses for those students and faculty that needed them.  Many students suspected they needed glasses but had never had their eyes tested because they could not afford glasses if the testing indicated they needed them.

These young people are eager to get their glasses.  For many it is the first glasses they have owned.

Friends of Burma has received some heartwarming thank you letters.  One said, "Now I can read as long as I want without tears coming to my eyes."

In 2010 40 students and staff received glasses at MIT.  Also forty at Karen Baptist Theological Seminary and twenty at Shwe Gyin Bible School.   There were times when more students' testing indicated they needed glasses but we were only able to give glasses to those with the greatest needs.   Every recipient got 15,000 kyats (about $17.50 each).