OUI Inc donate eyeglasses and lenses to BICO in Malawi

OUI Inc is a company founded by 3 Japanese Ophthalmologists with the goal to overcome world blindness by combining their knowledge in the field with new ideas to push the development of healthcare. Their solution is their product, Smart Eye Camera (SEC) – a smartphone attachment to evaluate ophthalmic images and videos for diagnostic purposes. OUI Inc are an IAPB Valued Supplier and feature on the VSS website.

OUI Inc. donated 570 pairs of eyeglass frames and more than 1,500 lenses to Blantyre Institute for Community Outreach (BICO), an NGO in the Republic of Malawi, in cooperation with MEGANE TOP CO., LTD. (MEGANE TOP), one of the leading eyeglasses companies in Japan.

MEGANE TOP has been focusing on CSR activities and considering donating eyeglass frames that had become out of stock due to design changes, and eyeglass lenses that had become surplus stock due to store consolidations and closures. In the Republic of Malawi in Africa, one of the poorest countries in the world, there are only 14 ophthalmologists out of an approximately 18 million population.

Dr. Khumbo Kalua is one of these only 14 ophthalmologists in Malawi, and he founded the Blantyre Institute for Community Outreach (BICO) to support rural residents in Malawi who are suffering from difficulty in access to eyecare.

Dr. Kalua and BICO have been working with various institutions around the world to contribute to the development of eye care and education of ophthalmologists in Malawi.

OUI Inc. has been working with BICO since November 2019 to conduct pilot tests of SEC in rural clinics in Malawi and invited Dr. Khumbo Kalua to Tokyo for a joint conference in February 2020. MEGANE TOP also participated in the conference and has been discussing with OUI Inc. about joint support for eyecare.

Based on the above, OUI Inc. and MEGANE TOP jointly donated eyeglass frames and lenses to BICO. The donated items arrived in the Republic of Malawi in April and May, and the local patients are very pleased with them.

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