Giving Partner
Every participation contributes to sustainable change.
Giving Partner 2024: OneDollarGlasses
Each participation funds one-third of a pair of glasses for a student who cannot afford glasses themselves. This allows them to attend class and fulfill their potential because they have access to education.
Because our mission is to improve the lives of as many future change makers as possible.
Progress with each submission
OneDollarGlasses is a German development aid organization whose goal is to enable as many people as possible from the poorest countries in the world to have eyeglasses that they can afford.
About OneDollarGlasses
OneDollarGlasses is a German development aid organization whose goal is to enable as many people as possible from the poorest countries in the world to have eyeglasses that are affordable for them. Because the problem in these countries is that millions of people are affected by extreme myopia, but they do not have access to vision aids because they cost about $40. School-age children and adolescents are massively affected by this problem because they usually have to leave school early because they can’t follow lessons because they can’t see properly.
This is where the European Green Award would like to get involved in order to give these young people the opportunity to fully develop their potential and become a change maker of tomorrow by financing glasses.
The glasses for one dollar
Developer and founder Martin Aufmuth has invested a lot of time in developing a pair of glasses for a material cost of one US dollar. They are made from flexible spring steel wire on a bending machine developed in-house. As a result, they are very light and at the same time extremely robust.
Development aid with a business model
Central to the success of this project, however, is that the glasses are not given away as development aid, but create jobs locally. The OneDollarGlasses team trains people to manufacture the glasses and to carry out the eye tests, so that they can then use the manufacturing kit to set up their own one-person business as contractors with OneDollarGlasses. They travel to villages in rural areas because people there usually can’t afford a trip to the city. They test people on site and then make the right glasses. They sell the glasses they make for a daily wage of three to five dollars. And so development aid becomes social business.
Learn more
www.eindollarbrille.de
The OneDollarGlasses for schoolchildren
In a school in Malawi, 220 first graders sit on the floor of their classroom. The teacher complains, „The children in the first three rows never pay attention, they just look out the window.“ The eye test reveals that many children need glasses. For example, one student says she could never do her homework by herself because she couldn’t see. So her friend read everything to her and wrote down the answers for her.
The team from OneDollarGlasses does an eye test with every child at schools, especially in rural areas. Afterwards, the students with defective vision are fitted with glasses in the color of their choice. Smiling happily, the students then look through their new glasses. In many cases, they can all see the material on the blackboard for themselves for the first time.
