by Philip Duck

Created on: October 31, 2009

A few years ago my partner and I were teaching English in a quiet, rural area of Cambodia at a shelter for girls who had either been trafficked for sex and labor, abandoned, orphaned or physically abused. Whilst there we discovered that some of the staff looking after these children had eyesight problems that were seriously impeding their work.

The girls' sewing-instructor, we could see, was, literally, as blind as a bat; their nurse was long-sighted and; one obviously near-sighted driver, had no business being behind the wheel of his own motorcycle let alone couriering some of the girls to and from school. Careful observation revealed that several of the students had sight problems, too.

A spectacle-shopping expedition to Phnom Penh, Cambodia's chaotic capital city, showed us that an eye-test and a pair of prescription glasses could be had for as little as US$8. That didn't seem like much, yet even at this price glasses remain well out of reach for most Cambodians and certainly for these rural folk.

So we resolved to fix the problem and a week later our near-sighted driver miraculously managed to get himself, the nurse, the sewing-instructor, three students and ourselves safely to a Phnom Penh optometrist. Also along for the ride was the center's second driver who insisted on coming as he had, he was certain, less than perfect eyesight.

Some hours later, after six eye-tests, the seemingly endless process of fittings and trying on frames, the nurse, driver number one, the sewing-instructor and the students could now, much to their excitement, see. All that remained was for driver number two to complete his test and receive his result from the optometrist.

That didn't take long and soon the excited driver burst out exclaiming that the test had confirmed that which he already knew; he did indeed need glasses. Driver number two wasn't short or near sighted, though, nor did he have astigmatism or glaucoma. Rather he had, like most of us, eyes with minor sun damage. The optometrist had recommended he get sunglasses!

Such was his excitement we didn't have the heart to refuse him and so, after much preening in front of the mirror, driver number two had a seriously-cool looking pair of shades. And, in his mind at least, his eyes were now functioning perfectly again.

This was the best sixty dollars we had ever spent; six eyesight problems solved; everyone beaming with delight and pride; and soon we would all be tucking into some weird Cambodian ice cream to celebrate the success.

Later, driver number two got behind the wheel and with his back ram-rod straight, our now cocky, sunglasses-wearing friend flashed admiring glances at himself in the rear-vision mirror all the way home

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