India: Omar’s story

omar12-year-old Omar Faruk was very excited about his new pair of glasses, which have not only enabled him to see the blackboard clearly, but also improved his batting skills on the cricket field! Omar’s life changed dramatically following an eye examination at the vision screening camp organized by the India Vision Institute (IVI), with support from Optometry Giving Sight, at his government-run school in his locality.

While initially he was rather scared to get his eyes examined, Omar is glad that he mustered courage to follow his classmates.

Omar’s father, a bearer in a small local restaurant, runs his family on a low income and therefore eye care is unfortunately not a priority that he can afford. He was very grateful to the school and to IVI for providing an eye examination and glasses to his son, so he can see clearly without straining his eyes.

Omar’s performance at school has also improved since wearing glasses. In fact, it was his class teacher who first noticed Omar’s problem.

“Thanks to IVI and my school, everything looks clearer and brighter with my glasses,” Omar said with excitement.
“School was very hard for me before I had my glasses. I had to strain my eyes to read from the blackboard which gave me severe headaches. I was not even able to ride my bike.”

Thankfully, that’s now changed!