During a 2004 trip to Bolivia Isaac Goff, founder of Dharma Trading Company, discovered that Bolivia does not have a program for screening young children for vision problems as is common in the USA. At the same time the cost of a private eye exam and corrective lenses is totally out of reach of the poorest children — indigenous kids for the most part.

In partnership with Solidarity Bridge, a Catholic Medical, Enterprise, and Education Mission, Isaac and his company established the "Children's Vision Program." They hired a Bolivian coordinator and three assistants to go into the schools and orphanages in the poorest areas and test the kids for vision problems.

Children who test positive for problems are taken on Saturdays to an ophthalmologist for a complete eye exam. The ophthalmologist provides a prescription for eyeglasses for each child then these are emailed in batches to Dharma Trading in California.

Dharma Trading staff then emails the prescriptions to China where their agent arranges for the manufacture of the eyeglasses. The finished glasses are then sent by FedEx to Bolivia for distribution to the children. Dharma Trading covers all the costs to enable this to happen.

The goal for 2009 is to screen 12,000 children and Dharma Trading estimates they will provide exams and glasses for about 2,000 children. This means they will increase the staff by four and provide a laptop computer and a used passenger van.

The project has started in Cochabamba and, if all goes well, will expand the program into other cities in Bolivia and other countries as well.

Read Issac Goff's progress report on our blog.

Contact:
Isaac Goff
P.O. Box 544
Fairfax, CA 94978
USA

Email:isaac2@dharmatrading.com
Tel: +1-415-485-0288

Web:http://dharmasocialprojects.com/