Fassikaw Kassahun, an 8-year-old second-grade student, resides in Bahir Dar, Kebele 15, and attends Meskerem 16 Primary School in Bahir Dar.
As told by Fasikaw’s Father
“When Fasikaw was in the first grade, he started to have difficulty seeing objects far away from him. He faced difficulties trying to read books and blackboards and since he was sitting around the middle or the back of the classroom, he usually borrowed others’ exercise books and copied the notes from them.
After he came home, it would take him a while to read a book and his eyes teared up a lot. His grades dropped significantly because of this. But rather than his results we were concerned about our child losing his vision and having trouble sleeping in the night. He also used to worry about his eyes and would tell me that he wanted to stop going to school and all was not happy with school. Around this time we heard that Partners in Education Ethiopia in partnership with Operation Eyesight implemented a School Based Eye Health Program and that students can get eyeglasses and get diagnosed for free thanks to this project. After hearing this we went to the hospital and Fasikaw’s eyes were checked, and we were told that the lens size for his left eye was +15:00 and +16:00 for his right. After we reported this to Partners, we managed to get the glasses for free.
Now, everything is fine. Our son can read even if his seat is far away from the blackboard, can read fast when he is at home, his eyes don’t tear up and he doesn’t get headaches when he reads anymore, and his rank has improved from the 27th to 21st and is continuing to improve. He is really happy now and we can sleep worry-free. With God's help, hope you will never have to worry about anything.”