Collaboration

Helping Vision in Moamba (Mozambique)

Since the year 2003, CiVi-UM and other professors from the Faculty of Optics at the University of Murcia collaborate with ONG’s sanitary aid in the “third world countries”. During the months of august of 2003 and 2004, various professors and optometrists from the Universities of Murcia and Alicante along with various volunteers traveled to Mozambique (one of the poorest countries in the world) to carry out humanitarian work. There, carrying out a project of cooperation for development, object of which is the improvement of the quality of vision by means of adecuate ophtalmic correction for inhabitants of Moamba –  a rural district with very few commodities, situated 50 kilometers away from Maputo, the capital.

Atención Visual en Moamba (Mozambique)Atención Visual en Moamba (Mozambique)

During those two summers more than 7000 diagnostics were carried out in total, which culminated in over three hundred glasses being sent to Mozambique.

Atención Visual en Moamba (Mozambique)Atención Visual en Moamba (Mozambique)

Those glasses were each handed out to the people who needed them thanks to the support of the School of Arts and Offices of Moamba, and especially Luis Rodríguez de Vera, an aquiline resident of the area. The picture depicts some of the children of Moamba receiving the glasses.

Atención Visual en Moamba (Mozambique)

Our attention was espeially directed at school age children, for whom we carried out campaigns of visual inspection in schools, being able to count on professors and volunteers in the area. Nuestra atención ha estado especialmente destinada a los niños en edad escolar, por lo que hemos llevado a cabo campañas de revisión visual en las escuelas, contando con la colaboración de profesores y voluntarios de la zona. Also, the most obvious and widespread need is the correction of presbyopia in adults, for whom not having good near vision limits greatly their ability to work day by day and read.

Atención Visual en Moamba (Mozambique)Atención Visual en Moamba (Mozambique)

In this context, it would be very useful to us to have the largest possible number of frames and glasses pre-assembled, just as long as they wouldn’t be worn or damaged they would be of great use to us, irrespectable of a possibly outdated design.

Collaborate with us

If you’d like to collaborate with us, please feel free to send material that you would like to donate to the University of Murcia:

Norberto López Gil,
Facultad de Óptica y Optometría (Edificio 35),
Campus de Espinardo,
30100, Murcia.

Atención Visual en Moamba (Mozambique)

We thank you wholeheartedly in advance for your cooperation and wish you all the best,
Esther Berrio López and Norberto López Gil (Professors of Optics and Optometry at the University of Murcia)

civium (from latin, genitive plural of civis-civis, "belong to the citizens")