Sometimes we are so busy with our own lives and careers that we feel we have neither the time nor capacity to help others. So, when I read an article about glasses in Bangladesh this week, I felt ashamed, then angry, then emboldened into action.
Google knows I like reading about eyewear, so the algorithm tends to serve up pretty much every global news story involving glasses, but this is an article that really hit home.
‘Having the right glasses could boost earning power by a third, Bangladesh study shows’ was the headline in The Guardian. The study, conducted in Bangladesh, is the first to examine the impact of having a decent pair of spectacles, and researchers found monthly median earnings among one group of people increased from $35.30 to $47.10 within eight months, a rise of 33.4%.
One does not need to be an optical professional to know that being able to see can help you work. The shock to me was that there are still places in India, which I think of as a fast-growing country, where people are earning just £1 a day. But, if they had a pair of specs, they could earn an extra 33p.
It costs the economy as much as $20 billion. What also bothered me is the fact that people cannot see clearly when the fix is so easy and affordable. If one cannot see, one cannot work. Well, this does not sound too difficult to resolve. We are mostly only talking about simple reading glasses here.
I’ve about 30,000 old specs in my warehouse from the past 20 years. I bet there are quite a few eyewear brands like me with the same or more. Is there a solution here? I reached out to an old contact in China to see how much I could buy some simple +1, +2 and +3 lenses for. I am still waiting for the quote but, 15 years ago, it was 5p per lens - much less than the 33p extra the workers would make in a single day.
Surely there is a way to get eyewear to people that need them? But therein lies the problem. In fact, it is probably not practical to even use up my old stock. It would be cheaper and easier to design and make new reading glasses from injection plastic in four great, easy to fit shapes.
Assorted boxes of glasses from the early 2000s will be a pain to handle and expensive to glaze up. While it is a nice idea to use old stock for environmental reasons, and because people like me get distressed with old stock, delivering eyewear that fits well and works probably should be done another way.
I reached out to an extremely rich bespoke client who supports various charities, and he is coming to see me in the factory soon. I will let you know how I get on. I’d like to find a way to use my skills on something other than my own business. Of course, the Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers and Orbis, both charities I know and work with, could help.
I will reach out to them with this idea as well. Grand ideas need a big organisation of willing people behind them to make them happen. I am never quite sure if my involvement in these charities counts as work or not. But just as I like my company work, I really enjoy working with charitable organisations and know I can and should do more. So, in the meantime, at least I can do this one thing today.
Can I ask you to look up the two charities above with the idea you might get involved?
Next week, I am off to Abbey Road Studios with Orbis for its annual fundraising event. Royalty should be there and lots of potential donors to whom I will pitch my idea. Events like these are always interesting, joyful and fun.
But the point behind them must never be lost and reading that article was a useful and timely reminder. Helping someone to see so they can help themselves is perhaps the greatest joy of all.