VAO launches Christmas appeal

Optical charity Vision Aid Overseas (VAO) has asked the public to ‘bring Christmas into focus this year’ as part of its 2020 Christmas appeal.

The charity said it hopes to raise £50,000 this year to continue its work enabling people living in poverty to access affordable eye care and spectacles.

Onanta, a secondary school student from Zambia, has been highlighted by the charity as an example of one of the 1.2 billion people worldwide who struggle to see clearly because of poverty’s impact on eyecare provision.

VAO provided Onanta with spectacles via a visiting eye team health team this year, helping her to progress with her schoolwork. She explained: ‘I was able to see clearly, I could read without difficulties even when I sat at the back in class and I don’t experience headaches anymore.’