Some initiatives contribute to the world significantly while there are a few ones that make a huge difference in the world by dint of the virtue of the initiative itself. Such an initiative is ‘One Dollar Glass’, which is bring about positive changes in the lives of so many people across the world.

Worldwide, approximately 150 million people need a pair of glasses, but cannot afford it. They cannot learn, cannot work and cannot provide for their families. Much of this burden can be minimized through an affordable pair of glasses and the solution is offered by ‘One Dollar Glasses’, a movement by a man to change the fate of millions of needy poor people. They consist of a lightweight, flexible spring steel frame and prefab lenses and can be locally manufactured with simple bending machines. The material costs approximately 1 US $ (Tk. 70-80 only).

It all started when a man named Martin Aufmuth read the book “Out of Poverty” by Paul Polak. Polak writes about an important invention that does not yet exist: A cheap pair of glasses affordable by people who live on 1 US-$ per day. A few days later Aufmuth happened to see glasses for 1 Euro in a store! He wondered: why can glasses for 1 Euro be bought in a rich country like Germany whilst in poor countries it is not possible? This very idea changed his mind-set and he got determined to invent something like that.

For months he collected information about different types of glasses, experimenting with different materials. One pair of glasses had a bicycle brake cable as a nose bridge, fully flexible, inexpensive to manufacture, but he needed screws to fix the glasses. And these can be easily lost. So, Aufmuth rejected that model. He kept searching the internet and various department stores for different types of glasses.

Then on April 11, 2010, he created the first pair of OneDollarGlasses! The frame of bent spring steel wire with hardened polycarbonate lenses was as stable as any expensive glasses made of titanium flex. As a first stress test he put the glasses on his chair and sat down on it – it did not break.

The lenses can be clicked into the frame with a single movement. Tools are not required. Two coloured glass beads give the glasses a nice, individual design (even poor people deserve pretty glasses). And the most important: The total cost of the material used amounts to only 0.80 US-Dollars per pair of glasses.

Aufmuth spent months of painstaking work to develop the first hand bending machine for producing the eyeglasses. Finally he was ready for the test in real life on April 04, 2010. And it was successful.

The rest of the story is like myth. He experimented with his one dollar glass in Africa. In his own words, “On March 31, 2012 I left the airport building in Entebbe/Uganda. Inside the two heavy boxes I was carrying, there were three bending machines, several kilos of spring steel wire, heat shrink tubing and beads. I was a little nervous and my mind raced: What am I doing here? Will anybody be interested in my invention at all? Is my concept practicable?”

He went on to say, “Next morning, there were about 800 people camping in front the gates of Kasana`s hospital doors. Five trainees were awaiting my arrival, eager to learn. For the next 14 days, I will teach them how to produce OneDollarGlasses on my machine. At the same time, we can supply about 500 children, adults and old people with glasses. After two weeks, I myself have learned ever so much and I know: my idea will work! Together with six colleagues from my school, we founded the association One Dollar Glasses. Short time later, we were recognized as a charity foundation.”

In the next few years Aufmuth simplified the bending machines. For producing a complete pair of glasses it now needs only 12 minutes. The organization named One Dollar Glasses, founded by Aufmuth, trains opticians. As a mobile bicycle optician they go from village to village with their luggage full of a handful of frames and a box with lenses of different diopters. The patients are tested for their vision on the spot and receive customized glasses.

They have travelled a long way but the founder feels that they have miles to go before they sleep. They are now looking for partners who will spread this movement throughout the world.

(A significant part of the information used in this article has been collected from the internet. The writer acknowledges all those sources of information.)