Children’s Sight Project

The CMIRC Children’s Sight Project was formed in 2015 to provide comprehensive eye exams to children in Chiang Mai schools. Retired Australian optometrist Peter Bell champions this popular program, which enjoys the support of two Thai Rotary clubs also located in Chiang Mai: Thinthaingam and Chiang Mai North. The project’s aim is to screen children for eye problems, provide them with the correct spectacles, then follow-up with additional eye exams each year they’re in school.

Our first school visits were in Mae Taeng district, about an hour north of Chiang Mai proper, where the Thinthaingam Rotary Club had already established water purification projects. Through June of 2016, more than 600 students were examined, with 39 needing eye-glasses. This project has examined 1715 people since Oct 2015, supplying over 96 pairs of spectacles to the children. Aside from the Mae Taeng schools, the CMIRC eye clinic has also visited visits the Chiang Mai Juvenile Observation and Protection Center.