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Prisoners Receive Clear Vision
Prisoners in many countries often suffer from vision problems simply because they cannot obtain treatment. PF England and Wales recently partnered with Vision Aid Overseas to correct the failing vision of prisoners in Bulgaria.
The challenges faced by prisoners in 2nd and 3rd world countries can be compounded when they have untreated vision problems. Recently, Prison Fellowship Bulgaria and Prison Fellowship England and Wales partnered with Vision Aid Overseas (VAO) to correct the vision of prisoners with failing eyesight. The VAO team of optometrists and PF representatives visited six prisons in Bulgaria. During the two week project, the doctors examined more than 1,000 prisoners and dispensed 888 eyeglasses.
Stefan, an inmate at the Stara Zagora Prison, was one of the first in line for his eye exam. He had undergone a cataract operation on both eyes ten years earlier but since he didn‘t have access to corrective glasses, he had been unable to see at a distance. The optometrist who examined Stefan was able to locate spectacles with his exact prescription. “He cried tears of joy as he was suddenly able to see clearly,” recalls Katharyn Wood, PF England/Wales Project Leader.
Having just a limited number of eyeglass cases, the team decided to distribute them to their patients at the only female prison in the town of Sliven. The optometrists were surprised by the reaction of the women prisoners. Milena was the first patient to receive glasses and the new case. When she came to collect her glasses and saw the case for them, she exclaimed, “for me?!” and then began to cry. She saw the case as a gift, something she‘d grown unaccustomed to since she‘d been incarcerated. In the Lovech Prison, the team discovered many prisoners suffering from severe vision problems. Demitri, for example, had a minus 26 prescription, so was considered legally blind without corrective lenses. The closest eyeglasses the optometrists had available was a minus 22 lens, but it made the difference between sight and blindness for Demitri. “Each examination incorporated a brief history and symptoms, a check of the health of the eye, and a look to see what, if any, spectacles were needed,” explains Robert Janney, an optometrist from Wales who volunteered for the project. “Although we worked very hard and were all very tired, seeing the grateful and happy expressions on the [prisoners‘] faces more than made up for the effort we all put in.”
