Vancouver refugee families receive free eye care from The Eyeglasses Project

Eye exams and prescription glasses can be very expensive for some families, especially those who are new to the country and may not have extended medical coverage.

The Eyeglasses Project is helping refugee families across Metro Vancouver to ensure they have healthy eyes by offering free exams and glasses.

Chaman Alizada, his wife, and their young children fled the conflict in Afghanistan, and have been living in Canada for the last nine months.

Alizada says eye exams are very expensive, and getting his eyes checked wasn’t a priority — until The Eyeglasses Project came knocking.

“I [am] very happy, because the whole family has come here and was checked by the doctor and we need glass[es]. The doctor will order [glass]es for my whole family,” he told CityNews.

Bosung Kim is an optometrist who is offering his services free of charge in conjunction with the program.

“Doing all that volunteering has really opened my eyes and I wanted to give back again,” Kim said.

This is Kim’s second year working with The Eyeglasses Project and he says it’s important that eye care is accessible for everyone, and feels it’s important refugee families with children aren’t left out.

“That way if they are in school, playing sports, or doing their day-to-day activities, we can really give them the best vision. That way they can really live their lives productively outside the clinic when they leave here.”

Howard Ma was inspired to start The Eyeglasses Project back in 2017 because of how expensive eye care and prescription glasses can be.

“One thing I have learned over the years is that a lot of times people do nothing. They will wear their expired glasses that don’t really work for them anymore or they deal with nothing,” Ma said.

The Pacific Immigrant Resources Society (PIRS) works with refugee families to receive exams and helped organize the project.

“We have an outreach worker that supports them when they are in Canada and these are families that we know will benefit from this,” said Valerie Lai, a program manager PIRS.

“Most of the families are from war-torn countries, so many of them haven’t had an opportunity to get their eyes checked in the last few years,” she explained.