Optical Project

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WJR's Optical Programme was established to supply that most precious capability, good eyesight, to those who would otherwise have to go without.

The programme supports communities in eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, such as Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus, where huge numbers are struggling to live below the poverty line, and items such as glasses, which we consider a necessity, become an unobtainable luxury.

Good eyesight can be the difference between a life, however difficult, and absolute misery. In particular, spectacles have four major impacts on the lives of our clients':

• Poverty: By offering spectacles as gifts in kind, WJR helps to relieve the budgets of those on low incomes.
• Exclusion: When WJR's clients cannot see properly they can find it difficult to participate in everyday life. Whether it is catching the right bus to one of World Jewish Relief's Jewish Community Centres (JCCs) or Welfare Centres (WCs) to attend an after-school activity or a senior citizens' circle, good eyesight is vital if people are to be truly part of the community.
• Isolation: The impoverished elderly are often left on their own for large amounts of the day. Their only company may a book or a newspaper. It is vital that the elderly have good eyesight to appreciate this meagre interaction with the outside world, or they may begin to lose spirit. Meanwhile, children need good eyesight to remain healthy and take part in the playing and socialising that should be part of any upbringing.
• Education: Ultimately, the best route out of poverty is education and training. Yet this can be very difficult if a child's vision is impaired. A modicum of eyecare can save a child from a lifetime of poverty.

In total, more than 3,000 spectacles were sent out in the year 2008/9, each pair requiring a donation of £5.93, including the cost of shipment. Glasses were sent to Belarus, Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Moldova, Romania, Serbia, Ukraine and Zimbabwe. As part of the programme 195 glasses were also delivered to WJR's street children's centre in Rwanda.

One reason why WJR is particularly proud of the Optical Programme is because it is entirely volunteer led. Retired opticians Harry Heber and David Goldman work from WJR's offices in London to ensure the programme continues to provide thousands of spectacles to those in need.

Harry obtains special rates with suppliers of frames and lenses to secure as many spectacles as possible at minimun cost, maximising the impact of every donation to the programme. He also organises the entire mechanism for getting spectacles to our clients.

The programme is extended to the communities where, in the first instance, each individual is enabled to have a professional eye test when a spectacle prescription is issued and brought to their Jewish Community or Welfare Centre. The prescriptions are then sent to our optician volunteers at WJR with other basic information such as name, gender and age, for a suitable spectacle frame to be selected and glazed.

All the frames and lenses supplied are newly prepared and checked to ensure their optical accuracy before being sent. Old glasses are not collected or sought, as due to the hundreds of variants and combinations in optical prescriptions, the best correction would not be obtained. Thus, the otherwise unaffordable provision of a pair of corrective spectacles is another unique and tangible result of World Jewish Relief's commitment to a Jewish lifeline worldwide.

One of the clients who benefits from WJR's Optical Programme is 83-year-old Anna Bekker (pictured above) from Tblisi, Georgia. Despite a difficult childhood - her family had to leave Ukraine when she was aged three, to escape the Soviets' man-made famine - she worked hard all her career as a doctor and had a productive life.

However, Anna never married and now has no-one to look after her. Her decrepit two-room apartment, where she has lived for 76 years, suffered serious damage in the 2002 Georgian earthquake. Anna must share a communal bathroom and kitchen with the rest of her floor in the apartment block.

She now suffers from arthritis and heart disease and a fractured hip, rendering her housebound. But Anna only has her £40 per month pension to pay her rent, utility bills, food and medications.

Anna currently receives food packages, home care and fuel and blankets from the local WJR Jewish Community Centre. She has also been provided with spectacles, so that although she may be housebound, she can at least still read books and newspapers. Anna said:

"I'm deeply touched and thankful for the gift of these spectacles. It will help me so much -- I do not know what life would be like without them."