Twelve-year-old Zenaice is in secondary school in a community not far from Moshi, Tanzania. She lives with her parents, Isaya and Lucy, her younger siblings Isabela and Istaray, and her grandmother Monica. Before she received her first pair of glasses, school and play were both a struggle.
“I was unable to see the blackboard, and I couldn’t see far, especially in the sunlight,” Zenaice explained. The glare outdoors was so difficult that she stopped going outside altogether. “Before, I couldn’t stay outside and would remain indoors,” she said. 
Everything changed once she was fitted for glasses at the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre; ones she chose herself, in colours she loves: white, green, yellow, and pink.
“The difference is that now I can be outside in the sun,“ Zenaice said. “I can read my teacher’s handwriting clearly, even though it’s very small. And I can play well again, because before, the sunlight made it too hard.”
That last part matters most to Zenaice. She loves netball and football with her best friends, Eva, Samson, Nora, and Ana, and getting her sight back means she’s no longer sitting on the sidelines. She even knows her positions: “In football, I know there’s the referee, the goalkeeper, and the defenders.“
Looking ahead, Zenaice has a clear goal of her own. “I want to become a science teacher,” she said, a career only possible if she has healthy vision.
Because of supporters like you, children like Zenaice don’t have to choose between the classroom and the playground. They can have both, in clear focus.
