So, it’s been a while. I had the wonderful opportunity to go home for three weeks over the holidays and absolutely loved soaking up every last little bit of america’s comforts (trader joes, costco samples, CHIPOTLE, jeopardy, zinfandel) as well as spend quality time with my family and friends… but now I’m back and it’s time to get down to business!

As mentioned in my last post, a project that I designed was recently funded by amazing people donating from home and I am kick starting the planning for that to begin in Feburary… BUT… another project that is very near and dear to my heart is in the works, so yet again i’m shamelessly plugging it on this blog.

The Eyewear for Moroccan Youth project has been put together by two fellow volunteers (phil and katy), but is the culmination of over a year of project designing, grant writing, grant re-writing, and logistics juggling. The basic idea is to fund an astoundingly ingenius and relatively cheap type of technology and put it in the hands of kids in need in the developing world.

The organization responsible for this awesome technology is called The Centre for Vision in the Developing World and is affiliated with Oxford University. An offshoot of this center is the group we are working with, Eye-Justers. Their website can be found here. Basically, these physicists have found a way to manufacture two lenses that, when placed together, slide along a spectrum and refract the light in a way that can be adjusted to fit any prescription. On that website, you can try the technology and experience the effect here.

This product is not only fascinating and impressive, it’s also CHEAP. These glasses are manufactured with distribution in the developing world in mind…. A self-adjusting and continually re-adjustable pair of glasses mean that a person with vision problems might never need to visit an optometrist in order to correct their sight. They will only need one pair of glasses for the rest of their life, despite a potential deterioration in their ability to see. In extremely poor areas, one pair of these glasses could also be used by an entire family, as the lenses can be re-adjusted an unlimited amount of times. All of this at $15 a pop. Impressive!

So, having read about the predecessor to these glasses in a National Geographic article, we contacted the organization and went from there… but now here we are. This project will provide 120 glasses to needy youth in Zagora and Outat Elhaj… towns in two of the poorest regions of Morocco. We really believe in this technology and would love to be able to bring it to our part of this country. I encourage you to read the linked articles above, and please consider donating at the link below. Every $15 buys a kid a pair of glasses that they can use for life!

The first model, photo from National Geographic Magazine

the slide-lens, new generation model that are the type of glasses we are seeking to fund (photo from Eyejusters' website)

Thanks, as always, for your consideration… HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Project donation link:

https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=378-177

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