March/April 2004
People

Aiding Vision in India

A University eye expert has recently returned from a trip to India where she helped to change the lives of 1,600 people.

University Eye Clinic Manager Anthea Goddard (pictured right) was part of a team who travelled to Poona for VisionAid Overseas - the charity that delivers unwanted glasses to people with sight problems in poorer countries.

Glasses cost the same as a month's wages in India, so many people in need of them there go without.

Anthea said: "People earn about £4 a month and that is the price of glasses. If you have a family to feed and clothe then you can imagine it comes low down on the priorities."

Anthea and the team treated up to 200 people a day in schools, village centres and temples in India.

One of the people that Anthea helped was a teenager who could only see an inch in front of her. A pair of donated glasses now means that she can see trees for the first time in her life.

Anthea said: "Until then she was dependent on someone leading her around and she was stuck in a village without much to do. It has opened up so many more opportunities for her."

Anthea began working with the charity twelve years ago and has also worked in Sierra Leone and in Swaziland in Africa.

Her recent visit to Poona - sponsored by the Haworth and Worth Valley Rotary Club - was her sixth with VisionAid.

16 April 2004

next

top of page