(This posting includes a handout LINK AT THE END OF THIS POST which you are welcome to use with your students.) *

This article in not about fashion. It’s not about the impression people get when they see someone wearing glasses. It’s about helping low-income people.

A 42-year-old grandmother in Bangladesh named Jasmin Atker was making the equivalent of $52 a month on her small family farm. Then one day, a nonprofit organization gave her a pair of glasses. After that, her income jumped almost 200% to $150 a month.

Researchers found similar improvements in people’s income in villages in Bangladesh and India after they had received glasses. (See complete article below.)

For background information about these articles and for suggestions for how to use them with your students, see  • Introducing “Short, High-Interest Readings”  Also, I’ll be adding more of these articles in the right-hand column: ESL Reading> Short, High Interest Articles for Extensive Readings

Here is the sixth article. You can download the article for your students by clicking on the link at the end. Also included are three optional exercises: True-False Questions; Paraphrasing Exercise; Reflection Exercise.

How Eye Glasses Surprisingly Increased Poor People’s Income.

This article in not about fashion. It’s not about the impression people get when they see someone wearing glasses. It’s about helping low-income people.

A 42-year-old grandmother in Bangladesh named Jasmin Atker was making the equivalent of $52 a month on her small family farm. Then one day, a nonprofit organization gave her a pair of glasses. After that, her income jumped almost 200% to $150 a month.

Researchers found similar improvements in people’s income in villages in Bangladesh and India after they had received glasses.

Before Jasmin Atker got her glasses, she spent a lot of time trying to find any insects that were on the vegetables that she was cutting. That time was greatly reduced thanks to her glasses, which means she can do more work in less time.

Researchers conducted a study of 800 adults in 56 villages in Bangladesh. These adults were farsighted, which means that they cannot see things close up very well. They randomly chose 400 and gave them glasses. They waited eight months before giving glasses to the other 400 adults. The researchers found at least two positive results for those 400 people who received glasses. First, their income increased by 33%. And second, people who were unemployed, in other words, had no job, were able to find jobs after getting the reading glasses.

The villagers in the study had many different types of jobs, for example, farmers, store owners, tailors, furniture makers. Only about a third of them knew how to read, so most of them did not use their glasses for reading. Instead, they used them, for example, to pick tea, sew clothes, or pick stones out of rice.

It’s interesting how much these people’s lives have improved for so little money. The glasses only cost about $3.

For the study, researchers gave out reading glass for near vision. This is because it’s easier to fit people with reading glasses than distance glasses. Reading glass are easier and cheaper to make because they only need a few levels of strength. The researchers compared it to buying a pair of pants. You only have small, medium, large and extra large.

A Bangladeshi tailor had a hard time putting a thread through a needle and stitching clothes because his eyesight was getting worse. After getting glasses, his income doubled. He said, “These glasses are like my lifeline.  I could not do my job without them.”

Here is the link to the article and exercises that you can use with your students: Eye glasses increase income ARTICLE EXERCISES

David Kehe
Faculty Emeritus

*About the free-download materials. During my 40 years of teaching ESL, I have had many colleagues who were very generous with their time, advice and materials. These downloads are my way of paying it forward.