CHATHAM, Ill. (AP) - If he takes his glasses off, Ishan Agarwall may as well have a blindfold on.
“I can’t read anything 2 feet away,” the Glenwood High School senior says.
Having poor vision was part of what led Agarwall to create “Project See Well Do Well,” a nonprofit aimed at helping poor students in India improve their vision.
The nonprofit has helped approximately 3,000 students in India get eye screenings and supplied 177 students with prescription glasses.
Agarwall, 17, said the idea to form a nonprofit started with an article he read four years ago detailing how students with poor vision struggle in the classroom.
When he read the article, he said, he thought about how hard school would be for him if he didn’t have his glasses.
Not only would he not be able to see what’s on the projector or white board, he would barely be able to read his own textbook, he thought.
“What’s the point of going to school then?” Agarwall said.
That thought stuck with him, and an idea clicked when Agarwall went to see an optometrist as part of an eye examination required by the state for Illinois for schoolchildren.
Eye exams are routine in Illinois, he thought, but are they given in foreign countries to schoolchildren?
Because his parents emigrated from India to the U.S., Agarwall started there. India also was a place he visited every year to see his grandparents and relatives.
It turned out, Agarwall said, eye exams were not required for schoolchildren in India like they are in Illinois.
That meant many students in India, especially those from poorer regions of the country like where his relatives live, likely didn’t have the prescription glasses they needed to do well in school.
“I felt the urge to help out,” Agarwall said.
Agarwall came up with a plan. He studied how to administer a Snellen Chart, an eye chart with rows of letters big and small used by optometrists to measure visual activity.
He then took his newfound knowledge and used it to train teachers at four schools in Navsari, India, when he traveled there with his family in January 2016.
He also contacted the Rotary Eye Institute in India, which agreed to have its optometrists volunteer to help with the vision screening. Furthermore, he added, he called a wholesaler in India and used $900 friends and family donated to purchase glasses for students.
Moving forward, Agarwall said, he hopes to expand the program beyond the four schools in Navsari.
He has a website, shdynasty13.wixsite.com/mysite, and said he soon hopes to set up a way people can donate online. People wanting more information can email him at ikagar236@gmail.com.
“We really want to encompass more schools and more students,” Agarwall said about his goal for the nonprofit.
Agarwall’s father, Atul, a professor at University of Illinois Springfield, said he couldn’t be prouder of his son for coming up with a specific plan to help people in need.
Many poor farmers live Navsari, he said, and don’t have the resources to get their children’s eyes screened or buy them prescription glasses.
If the kids can improve their vision, hopefully it will help them continue their education and pursue a better life, Atul said.
?(Ishan) really believes in giving back to society,” his father said. “I think he really is making a difference.”
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Source: The (Springfield) State Journal-Register, http://bit.ly/2ExZQsO
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Information from: The State Journal-Register, http://www.sj-r.com
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