Escolhares - Rio Project

Escolhares - Who are we?

💙 Escolhares is first and foremost a collaboration between medical students from Lausanne and volunteers on the ground in Rio de Janeiro. Since 2017, we’ve been conducting eye screenings in schools in disadvantaged neighborhoods around Rio, with one goal: to enable these children to give their best, without being penalized by insufficient vision.

👩🏽‍⚕️ We offer eye examinations to children in whom we detect a vision problem. These examinations take place on site, in the schools, with Brazilian ophthalmology students who carry out tests to better understand each child’s problem and determine their specific needs. We also offer medical appointments with specialists for children with eye problems that require further examination.

👓 Then we let the children select their frames from the wide choice offered by our partner. Once selected, we send the collected data and the frame to our partner so that he can manufacture the different glasses, adapted to each child’s needs.

🥳 Once we’ve received a batch of glasses from a screened school, we organize a ceremony for the children and their families, consisting of an eyewear party and an awareness-raising event on sight problems :)

Why support us

⚠️ While access to healthy sight is a given here in Switzerland, it’s not the case for some children in Rio. In 2024 alone, 1,000 of the 4,000 children screened required more in-depth examinations. Of these 1,000 children, half had their eyesight problems solved thanks to a new pair of glasses!

🤝🏼 The strength of Escolhares is that even with a small financial contribution, you can have a huge impact on a child’s life. It’s their ability to learn to read and write that will be greatly enhanced, encouraging their education and future opportunities.

✅ When you decide to contribute to our project, in addition to helping Rio’s schoolchildren, you can choose one of our many rewards. We understand that making a donation to an association can sometimes make people hesitate, which is why we’re offering you the chance to receive something in return!

Here's how your support will help

Free health care for Rio’s children comes at a price. We hire two people a year to organize the screenings and follow up in the schools, so as to ensure the continuity of the project throughout the year, and not just during the two summer weeks when the team of volunteers from Lausanne goes on site.

Your support will also be used to cover transport costs for the children, the purchase of equipment and certain services provided by the ophthalmologists.

The scope of our project depends directly on your support! The more donations we receive, the greater the number of children who can benefit from screening!