In recent months, one of the optometrists at the ophthalmology centre of the Bachir Saleh National Hospital in Rabuni trained four women in the technical skills of assembling, adjusting and repairing glasses. After completing the training sessions, Eyes of the world was able to hire two of them as assistants in the centre’s glasses assembly workshop.
With these new members, the workshop team now consists of four people – two optometrists and the two new assistants – enabling the centre to extend its opening hours and days of operation to meet the needs of the Sahrawi refugee population in the camps.
Currently, the workshop is open six days a week and produces between 20 and 40 pairs of glasses per day, for a total of around 700 pairs per month on average. Adverse weather conditions, an increase in the detection of eye problems, refractive adjustments after cataract surgery… all of these factors make the eyeglass assembly workshop a highly sought-after and widely used service among the Sahrawi population, who access it through referrals from regional hospitals and publicity messages, but also and above all through recommendations from people who have already used the service.
The Eyes of the Sahara project is funded by AECID (Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation).