International Youth Day: A Pair of Glasses Brings a Clearer Future for Nga

In the misty mountains of northwest Vietnam, where the path to education is steep, 13-year-old Nga is climbing higher than most.

A student at a school in the Lai Chau province, Nga is one of five sisters in a poor farming family. Life in her village is tough, and for many girls, school is a short chapter in a life that quickly turns to marriage, motherhood, and survival.

This International Youth Day 2025, we recognise the strength of young people like Nga, who, despite the odds, hold on to hope and push for a brighter, better future.

For years, Nga battled blurry vision. “Many times, I had to copy my classmate’s notebook because I could not see clearly,” she said. Like so many children in remote communities, Nga had never had her eyes tested. Eye care simply wasn’t accessible.

Through Orbis and its local partners, eye care finally reached Nga’s school. She was tested and diagnosed with astigmatism – a condition where your eye isn’t perfectly round, so things look blurry or stretched – and received her very first pair of prescription glasses, completely free of charge.

“Everything is super clear. It’s wonderful”.

Today, with her new glasses, Nga is dreaming big.

“I want to become a kindergarten teacher,” she shared. “I wish I could earn money to build a bigger house for my family.”

Orbis visited Nga’s home; a small house perched on a remote hillside. Her parents were away working in the fields. Like many families in the highlands, people live with very little.

But Nga’s determination shows in her daily life, walking long mountain paths to school and helping care for her younger sisters. Now, with clear vision, she studies harder than ever to prepare for her future as a teacher. life.

International Youth Day 2025 is a reminder that every young person deserves the chance to learn, grow, and lead. But millions of children are still held back by avoidable issues like poor vision.

Nga’s story shows what’s possible when we invest in eye care for young people. Through Orbis’s sight-saving work in Lai Chau province, more than 40,000 children have already been screened, and over 5,000 adults have received eye care. But so many more are still waiting.

This International Youth Day let’s honour youth potential by removing one of the simplest, yet most damaging, barriers to their progress: poor vision.

A simple eye test. A pair of glasses. That’s all it takes to change a life.