Close to 100 stu­dents from sec­ondary schools across Trinidad were cel­e­brat­ed at the Trinidad Eye Hos­pi­tal’s (TEH) in­au­gur­al Es­say Writ­ing Com­pe­ti­tion prize-giv­ing cer­e­mo­ny on Sep­tem­ber 18.

The com­pe­ti­tion, launched in Ju­ly, in­vit­ed young writ­ers to ex­plore top­ics such as Food and Eye Health, The Im­por­tance of Eye Health in the Dig­i­tal World, and Eye Health and My Fu­ture: Why it Mat­ters. Be­yond recog­nis­ing their cre­ativ­i­ty, the ini­tia­tive en­sured that first-place win­ners’ schools would re­ceive free eye screen­ings and glass­es for stu­dents in need.

“Our screen­ings show that one in five stu­dents needs glass­es, yet many don’t know it or can­not af­ford them,” said Lee Ann Lazarus, man­ag­er of the Eye Screen­ing Unit.

“This com­pe­ti­tion was about en­cour­ag­ing young peo­ple to use their voic­es but al­so about some­thing very prac­ti­cal: mak­ing sure every child can see the board, read the page, and reach their po­ten­tial.”

Dr Ron­nie Bho­la, CEO of the hos­pi­tal, added, “Good vi­sion and lit­er­a­cy go hand in hand. When we help chil­dren see clear­ly, we al­so help them learn, achieve, and dream big­ger. This com­pe­ti­tion is the start of what we hope will be­come an an­nu­al tra­di­tion of em­pow­er­ing our na­tion’s stu­dents.”

Win­ners in­clud­ed Nathaniel Sylvester of Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege, San Fer­nan­do, Jo­han­na-Marie Jones of AS­JA Girls’ Col­lege, San Fer­nan­do, and Sid­dhi Ma­haraj of Par­vati Girls’ Hin­du Col­lege, among oth­ers. Spon­sors, in­clud­ing Guardian Group, Cen­tral Bank of Trinidad and To­ba­go, and TEH Op­ti­cal, pro­vid­ed sup­port, en­sur­ing glass­es reach the win­ning schools.

The hos­pi­tal plans to make the es­say com­pe­ti­tion an an­nu­al event, con­tin­u­ing its mis­sion to re­move bar­ri­ers to sight and learn­ing and to help every child reach their full po­ten­tial.