Optometry Giving Sight

Optometry Giving Sight seeks to transforms lives through the gift of vision. Recently, Canadian photojournalist Rick Castiglione went to West Africa to document some on-the-ground project work. He recounts some of his experience here.

As an international photojournalist, I see the world through the glass eye of a camera, and through the spectacles that I have worn since I was eight years old.  My prescription glasses help me to get where I want to be. They allow me to find my way through the congested streets of Mumbai and Nairobi, through Bangkok and into remote corners of the Amazon Basin. The lenses of my cameras allow me to focus, frame and capture images that I want the world to see. Without access to these carefully crafted pieces of glass and plastic, I wouldn’t be able to do the things that I love the most; travel; explore new cultures; and tell stories.

The stories that I enjoy telling the most are the stories of compassion - people helping people. I have just returned home from an assignment which met this criteria perfectly.  It was a journey into West Africa to look at the work funded by Optometry Giving Sight, as they reach out to help millions of people who are desperate for access to qualified optometrists and proper spectacles – allowing them to live fuller lives through access to education and work, and to do what they love most – whatever it may be.

This assignment led me to Bamako, Mali and an introduction to the country’s optometrist.  You may notice that I wrote the word optometrist in the singular; just one.

Just one optometrist to serve the needs of 14 million people.

Amassagou Dougnon received help to get his training and is paying that forward by training others how to become optometrists.

I was also fortunate to be able to meet an optometrist from Canada, who was there to train young people from Mali, and several other Franco-African nations, so they will be able to help their own people.  Her partner is a volunteer physics teacher, teaching the same students the physics of light and refraction.

I met young people from all over Africa studying to become the first optometrists in their own countries – Congo and Madagascar to name a couple.  I met young Malians, whose lives have been changed dramatically because they now have spectacles with lenses carefully prepared, just for them.

In the coming months, I look forward to sharing some of the stories that I have captured through my lenses. It will show how your support of Optometry Giving Sight is making a huge difference in the lives of millions of people around the world.

Top photo: Rick Castiglione on camel in West Africa

Bottom photo: Amassagou Dougnon