Patients and the Punjab

With over 145 million people in the world with visual impairment through uncorrected refractive error a team from the UK set out to the Punjab, India for a right to sight project. The model allows for recycling of 8,000 pairs of spectacles from the UK sorted by prisoners in HMP Barlinnie and taken to India through humanitarian donations from BA and Vistara airlines.

The spectacles must be in good condition with any cyls over 0.75 and anisometropia over 1.00 rejected hence having the nearest or similar BVS in each eye. Although the team agrees with the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) opinion on trying to encourage the host nation to provide its own spectacles in the first instance, this is not always realistic in the poorest regions of the world. The team do however provide knowledge transfer in the form of lecture and hands on workshops.