Giving Compass' Take:

• Better access to eyeglasses could reduce the number of people who are slipping into poverty due to poor vision and few solutions.

• How can we draw more attention to this issue? How can we encourage effective and sustainable plans for vision-based solutions? 

• An analysis done by Vision For A Nation provides challenges and potential solutions for access to eyeglasses. 

It's the moment when you realize you need to do something about your sight, which might mean a trip to the opticians or buying a pair of reading glasses in the chemist's or supermarket. But what would happen if there was no way of getting help? What would the consequences be if there were no opticians or affordable glasses and you simply had to accept not being able to read? The chances of keeping a job or staying in education would begin to diminish, even if it was only a minor problem that could be corrected by glasses.

A report this week from the Overseas Development Institute shows how much can be lost by something as simple as the absence of a pair of spectacles.There are an estimated 2.5 billion people worldwide who need glasses but do not have access to them. About 80% of these are concentrated in 20 developing countries, mostly in Africa and Asia.

While aid budgets are given to urgent, life-threatening illnesses, relatively little international attention is paid to the slow-motion disaster of someone struggling to see clearly.

Among adults, researchers say, vision problems can mean loss of opportunities in work and loss of income - and for the local economy a lowering of productivity.

Hong Kong businessman and philanthropist James Chen, founder of a charity in Rwanda, Vision for a Nation, that has tested ways of delivering eye care to large numbers of people.  The Rwandan project has reached two million people and has delivered 160,000 pairs of glasses.

Read the full article about access to glasses by Sean Coughlan at BBC.