On this project we sight tested about 2,000 people and dispensed around 1,700 pairs of glasses
 There was great excitement when we arrived in the difficult to reach town of Chatipa. At first the people thought we had come to build the new road. New spectacles were a more than welcome second best. Hundreds of people queued up to be tested and to receive glasses. |
 Even school teachers have difficulty obtaining reading glasses. This can mean that they are unable to mark the children's work or read text books. |
 Jill sight testing: Often the optometrists in the team are working across a small room. The test chart is pinned to the wall above the opposite patient's head. |
 Zaidu is an orphan, his teacher brought him to the cliinic. He had never worn spectacles but the teacher thought there was a problem with Zaidu's vision. He was found to need -10 diopters. This was a strange new world for this 12 year old boy, seeing clearly for the first time. |
 The children of a blind school. Some in fact are not blind, they just need strong spectacle correction. Freedom at the centre back of the group had received glasses the previous year from a VAO team. In just one year he had been able to give up reading braille and had learnt to read and write script. |
 At the end of a hard day working in a clinic, the team relax by the shores of Lake Malawi. In the background our grass hut accommodation |