Ensuring Girls in Ethiopia Receive Basic Eye Care

RibkaTanto is a 16-year-old girl who lives in Zefano Kebele, southern Ethiopia.

Currently a 10^th grade student at Zefine Highschool, Ribka realized that she was experiencing vision loss five years ago when she began to struggle to read anything written on the blackboard. Because of her poor vision, she was forced to borrow her friend’s exercise books to copy during her breaktime.

Sometimes Ribka’s classmates refused to give her their exercise books. Even when they did, she found it difficult to read their handwriting. As a solution to her vision challenge, she tried sitting in the front of the class. But this did not help at all. Thankfully, Ribka’s teachers were very understanding and cooperative. They made exam sheets for her while the rest of the class read the questions from the blackboard.

Ribka’s family did not know what caused her vision struggle nor the recommended treatment as they had never seen such a condition. Luckily, Orbis trained one of the teachers in Ribka’s school on primary eye care and vision screening as well as referral techniques. Ribka took part in the school screening campaign where it was discovered that she was short-sighted.

In December 2017, an optometrist from Zefano Health Centre came to Ribka’s school to rescreen the students who had been diagnosed with vision problems by their teacher. Ribka’s diagnosis was indeed correct. Ribka was given free glasses which improved her vision.

A week after Ribka had received her glasses, Orbis staff visited Zefine Highschool to find her taking exams and reading from the blackboard just like the other students.

Ribka was delighted to finally be able to see like her classmates. “I have already started reading letters and words written on the blackboard quite comfortably and I would like to thank Orbis for providing this invaluable service for me as well as for my community.Thanks to Orbis and my teacher, borrowing other student’s exercise book is now history!”  

Thanks to your generous support, Orbis can continue to help girls like Ribka. They do not have to needlessly struggle with visual impairment and can continue their education, which is something every child deserves.