AN OPTICIAN from Tavistock is preparing to travel to Ethiopia in February to help provide desperately needed spectacles. Pam Adams, who works for Batemans Opticians in Launceston, will be part of a seven person team with Vision Aid Overseas aiming to improve the lives of thousands of patients who need the spectacles to lead an ordinary life. The project will last two weeks. 'It is amazing how easily we take spectacles for granted in the UK,' said Pam. 'Even if you are short sighted or long sighted, it is virtually impossible to consider your condition a disability. 'There are opticians on every high street in the country and almost nobody in the UK would ever go without. 'In Ethiopia many people, especially youngsters, are severely disabled by poor eyesight and I am very excited about the opportunity to help these people.' Vision Aid Overseas is a charity dedicated to helping people who suffer from refractive error — short and long sightedness — who are unable to receive optical treatment. In Ethiopia there are no fully qualified optometrists working, so receiving a pair of spectacles would be beyond the hope of an estimated 35 million people living below the poverty line. The team will be doing a mixture of training and direct service, spending the first week in a classroom with students and the second week providing eye examinations at rural clinics in some of the poorest parts of Ethiopia, where they will dispense spectacles donated and recycled in the UK. This is the second project Pam has been involved in with the charity. On arriving at the often makeshift eye clinic, volunteers can be faced with queues of more than 100 people, most having walked a couple of days to reach the clinic. But the spectacles can make the world of difference, enabling young people to be able to see to receive an education and transform their lives, and allowing older people to lead fulfilling lives once more.