A Bradford optometrist is jetting out to Ethiopia to use her skills to help transform the lives of hundreds of people living with poor vision.

Rehana Hussain leaves Britain on Saturday to spend two weeks as a volunteer with Vision Aid Overseas, a charity dedicated to helping people in the developing world whose lives are blighted by poor eyesight, particularly where spectacles can help.

It sends teams of volunteer optometrists and dispensing opticians to set up clinics, screen large numbers of patients and provide appropriate spectacles.

Since 1985 it has provided 600,000 eye tests and given 300,000 people the ability to see with spectacles.

Miss Hussain, 26, of Chippendale Rise, Bradford, will travel with six other optometrists and an assistant.

After flying into the capital Addis Ababa they will travel two hours south to the town of Butajira, where they will spend a week at a hospital.

The group will spend time training nurses in eyecare techniques and refraction, so that when they leave the work can continue.

The group will spend the second week in a town called Ziway where they will run clinics, testing people's eyes and dispensing spectacles.

Miss Hussain is a former pupil of Belle Vue Girls' School and trained to become an optometrist at the University of Bradford.

After university she spent a year at a practice in Huddersfield, then three years working in Wakefield, before becoming a locum optometrist working across the region.

"Poverty and a lack of skilled opticians affect millions of people who do not have the spectacles they desperately need," she said.

"For those living in the developing world with poor vision, education and employment are out of reach and many find daily living difficult and dangerous. With the correct spectacles, people can learn, work and achieve a quality of life otherwise completely unobtainable.

"Ethiopia is a country of 60 million people and without a single qualified optician. By contrast the UK has over 20,000 qualified optometrists and 5,000 or more dispensing opticians.

"As well as providing direct service clinics out there, we will be training the nurses, following up on the optical workshops set up in previous clinics with a view to helping the country toward self-sufficiency."

The charity relies on donations of spectacles. To find out more and how to help, visit www.vao.org.uk e-mail: claire.lomax@bradford.newsquest.co.uk

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