A mother receives her eye exam as her young baby looks on.
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CINCINNATI—As part of an ongoing, three year initiative, OneSight has announced their aim to bring vision care access to over 200,000 people who have been displaced along the Thailand-Myanmar border by 2020. The Thailand-Myanmar border people live in temporary shelters, or migrate between countries daily in search of economic opportunity, health care, and education. Due to many competing needs and a lack of available resources, access to quality eyecare in the region has been scarce.

To change this, OneSight is beginning to work with local and international organizations to establish the Mae Tao Clinic as a local center for eyecare. The project began with a group of 20 volunteers traveling to Thailand to provide vision care at the Mae Tao Clinic over the course of two weeks. Volunteers provided vision care to over 2,200 people over the course of those two weeks, with over 1,750 patients receiving a much needed pair of glasses. The team was able to provide 75 percent of the glasses on the spot by using Essilor 2.5 NVG Ready to Clip or reading glasses.

“OneSight is thrilled to kick off a three-year project across the Thai-Myanmar border,” said Wayne Tennent, OneSight’s director of programming for Asia Pacific. “We are dedicated to making sure the neediest of the needy have access to vision care and we also believe in the importance of building capacity and training along these border regions.”