Rainbow Village: Vision Problems of Deaf and Mute Students

Rainbow Village Help Center is a TFish Strategics Member. It was established for the purpose of giving glasses to impoverished children.

There are 243 students in Yunnan Pu’er Special Education School. Of these children, 3 have low vision and 38 are mental retarded. The rest of the children have language or learning handicaps. Since there is no doctor at the school, we have to train teachers how to use a visual tasting chart and suggested setting up visual file.  The teachers participated in the whole process of vision screening, and they had some preliminary understanding about the students’ vision. 

Niyao is hearing impaired. He has amblyopia but received no prescription in his childhood. The esotropia with nystagmus became more serious as he grew up. He is 16 now and has missed the best period for treatment.

Hou Yinbo was led to low vision by presbyopia in his childhood. With the strong demand from his teacher, his parents bought glasses for him, but they were damaged 3 years ago. His parents have not bought a new pair for him since then. Yingbo’s corrected visual acuity is about 4.4, while the normal child should be above 4.8. We hope his vision will become better or remain stable. 

Niyao is hearing impaired

Hou Yinbo was led to low vision by presbyopia since childhood

Fu Jiawen is surprisingly regarded as a chubby girl by her teacher. Her face is swollen, but her body is as thin as a pole. She shows an unhealthy edema. Her eye sight is very poor. She is 7 and considering other illnesses, we just chose a spectacle frame for her. Her teacher will take her to check it in the hospital and give her an appropriate prescription. 

Liu Chunyun has the most serious eye problem. Her eyes show discarded strabismus. No matter how big the characters are on the blackboard, she cannot see and has to stand just before the blackboard. According to her, she could not even recognize her classmates or teachers when they went near her. She has very low vision.  

Some of these pictures are the children who needed glasses. The children with prescriptions will take such pictures in the future to add transparency of the project. 

Original article written by Quandi Cheng, translated by Maggie Li, edited by Yanyan Zhang

Jiawen is unexpectedly regarded as a chubby girl

Liu Chunyun's eyes show discarded strabismus