escolhares - Rio project

This is what it's all about.

The Rio project of our Escolhares association takes effect throughout the year. We and our various members go to different schools in the Rio de Janeiro region to carry out vision screenings for schoolchildren. We then offer eye exams to children in whom we detect a vision disorder. These examinations take place on site, in schools, with Brazilian ophthalmologist students who carry out tests in order to better understand the problem of each child and thus determine their specific needs. Afterwards, we let the children select their mount from a wide choice offered by one of our partners. Once the frame is selected, we send the data collected by our ophthalmologists, as well as the frame, to our partner so that they can manufacture the different glasses, adapted to the needs of each child. Once we receive the set of glasses from a screened school, we organize a ceremony for the children and their families, consisting of a glasses handover party and raising awareness about vision problems :)

My project is special because ...

Our project is of great importance. Our slogan is: «seeing is knowing», which underlines the importance of our work and the importance for these schoolchildren to have access to correct vision in order to be able to correctly follow their schooling. This type of problem is frequently not detected in children, or too late. The different stages are relatively restrictive, both in terms of travel to individuals of the vision and both in terms of price. We want to fight this and provide access to this type of care from a very young age :)

We also have the particularity of having a branch in Lausanne with the associative part made up of medical students from Lausanne who work throughout the year to raise the funds necessary for the smooth running of the project in Rio. In addition, each year, 5-8 students are selected for a 2-week trip to support the project in Rio to help with screenings and support ophthalmologists. This assistance is essential to increase our ratio of screened schools. This trip allows collaboration between Swiss and Brazilian medical students, also allows Swiss students to be confronted with another reality and to be able to visit medical centers on site. We also offer our students selected for the trip Portuguese lessons as well as a day of training at the Jules-Gonin hospital in order to prepare for the trips.

This is what I need backing for.

Your support will help us to perpetuate our project on site. Indeed, the number of schools that we can identify and the number of glasses that we can offer directly depend on the funds that we manage to raise each year. As funds increase, more schools we can screen. These funds will go directly into our project, into the investment of new equipment in order to improve screening.