BRIGHT Eyes Trust, an NPO that provides care, education and support for visually impaired children and their caregivers, provided free eye screenings at Columbia Primary School in Greenwood Park last week.

The centre, which had previously held a screening at the school more than two years ago, tested every educator and learner at the school.

A portable, handheld autorefractor was used to measure a person’s refractive for nearsightedness, farsightedness, or astigmatism. It can also determine a prescription for glasses or contact lenses.

For Carron Strachan, co-founder of the NPO, it’s a cause close to her heart.

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“As someone with a visual impairment, I know what it is like being a child in a mainstream classroom with an undetected visual impairment. I have some idea of what they are going through. One of our missions at Bright Eyes is to educate and raise awareness on eyecare. Our core focus is the visually impaired child and we feel early intervention is key.

“Our goal this year is to screen 2000 children and we’ve already surpassed the 890 mark. A big reason for coming back to the school is the last time we were here we only managed to screen a single classroom and we felt we needed to show our commitment to the school and help as many children as possible,” Strachan said.

Elmarie Grendele, an optometrist who assists the centre, said screenings help identify potential vision problems for young children.

“The technology we use helps us determine the correct prescription for glasses, it picks up the difference in pupil sizes and also helps determine whether a person is nearsighted, farsighted, or has an astigmatism. This test which is quick and easy helps inform the learners and the educators the steps they need to take to help their vision,” she said.

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Principal of Columbia Primary School, Gloria Hlatshwayo, expressed her gratitude to the centre for their help.

“When I got the call from the Bright Eyes Centre to assist us I was so happy for them to come to the school. One of the projects we’ve focused on at the school is vision related and we’ve embarked on a project to assist learners. We also had learners we identified for the screenings. As a school we are so grateful for what Carron and her team have done as vision problems can significantly impact their learning,” she said.

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