John Snelgrove awarded $5,000 for Optician in a Box system

British-based optician John Snelgrove has secured $5,000 in funding from the Clearly Vision Prize, a global competition to support the most promising technologies tackling poor vision across the developing world.

Snelgrove’s modular Optician in a Box system contains 1,000 frames and 3,000 pre-cut lenses so every patient can have a pair of single vision spectacles made quickly.

The competition announced three winners, each taking home a chunk of the $250,000 prize fund. South Afirca technology firm Vula Mobile was awarded $100,000 for an app to connect primary healthcare workers in remote areas with on-call specialists, enabling primary health workers to do basic eye tests.