International Rescue Committee (IRC)

Restoring sight

Photos: 
The IRC’s Suphachai Pitanee checks the pupil reflexes of a Burmese migrant during an eye examination near Mae Sot near the Myanmar border. (Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC)
The IRC’s Tupo Ruengrobpoo performs an eye examination on a Burmese child. During 2010, the IRC has performed eye examinations on thousands of children at 55 schools on the Thailand-Myanmar border. (Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC)
The IRC’s Suphachai Pitanee performs an eye exam. In September, 2010 the IRC border eye program in Thailand reached a milestone when it distributed its 100,000th pair of eyeglasses. (Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC)
Ma Ka, a 47-year-old bamboo picker from Myanmar, suddenly lost her eye sight while working in the fields. Her sister brought her to the Mae Tao clinic in Thailand for treatment. Here, IRC program manager Satja Netek (right) checks the pressure in Ma Ka’s eyes for signs of glaucoma, a disease that can damage the optic nerve and result in blindness. (Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC)
U Tin Shwe, 45, worked as a teacher in Myanmar before fleeing to Thailand. He is now teaching Burmese migrant children in Mae Sot, but found his work increasingly difficult as his eye sight deteriorated. “My new glasses will enable me to work again,” he says. (Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC)
A Burmese woman wears a metal spectacle frame designed to test out different eyeglass lenses. (Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC)
In rural Myanmar, people cannot afford to treat eye diseases or buy glasses. As a result, many become blind from preventable eye diseases or spend their lives suffering from poor eyesight. (Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC)
The IRC’s Win Win Maw checks the eyes of Phyu Phyu Lwin, 9, who is about to receive her first pair of glasses. “I couldn’t see the teacher or the blackboard at school,” she says. (Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC)
The success of the border eye program in Thailand has led the IRC to start similar programs for refugees in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Chad. The newest eye program is slated to open soon in Southern Sudan. Here, a young Sudanese refugee is examined by a health worker in Kenya’s Kakuma camp. (Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC)

The International Rescue Committee is helping hundreds of thousands of visually impaired refugees and victims of war restore their vision through a unique program that offers free glasses and eye surgery.

Photos and text by the IRC's Peter Biro