Vatican offers free eye exams and glasses to children in need

By Benedetta Capelli

World Sight Day is observed every second Thursday of October. It is a global initiative that aims to spread awareness about preventable blindness and visual impairment.

This year’s theme is ‘Love Your Eyes’, and it’s a reminder to put eye health at the forefront of our personal and collective well-being.

On World Sight Day, the Santa Marta Pediatric Dispensary in the Vatican offered free eye exams and prescription glasses to about 50 poor children.

The Santa Marta Pediatric Dispensary is a clinic that operates inside the Vatican, near Casa Santa Marta, where it assists hundreds of low-income local and international families.

The eye-care initiative is made possible thanks also to a partnership with the OneSight EssilorLuxottica Foundation and the Dicastery for the Service of Charity.

Present on Thursday morning at the dispensary was the Prefect of that Dicastery, Archbishop Luis Marin de San Martin. He greeted the children queuing for their visit and described the initiative as a concrete testimony of the Church’s charitable action.

“It is charity,” he added, “that adapts, with creativity, to changing needs.” Here, he reiterated, ” Our doors are open to everyone because charity has no borders.”

He went on to say he is so happy to have been appointed as the papal almoner, a role that has allowed him to come into contact with a wonderful reality that many are not aware of.

The Pope’s charity, the archbishop continued, reaches so many people that to “the saints next door,” volunteers who give generously of their skills and of their time for the poor.

“For me”, Archbishop de San Martin concluded, “these have been months of great personal, spiritual and pastoral enrichment.”

Among the volunteer doctors at the dispensary on Thursday, ophthalmologist Dr Valeria Pendino, of the Bietti Foundation, explained that the foundation is very sensitive to the needs of disadvantaged families.

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She said it was through its work with socially oriented organisations that this opportunity came about. “I am happy that I found the time to be here today,” she added, “For me, it has been a very powerful experience because in our field, prevention is essential.”

“Today I saw older children, but also young adults who, if they had been diagnosed and treated during childhood, would have had a different course,” she added, explaining that some of the children examined had never undergone their scheduled eye checks and had visual impairments that have hindered the development of one or both eyes.

“So now,” she concluded, “there is a course of treatment and follow-up ahead.”