SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
One challenge in the medical world is how to get healthcare to people who live in remote and far-flung areas. As NPR's Gabrielle Emanuel reports, in northeastern India, a new approach is being tested, and it involves the country's massive network of post offices.
GABRIELLE EMANUEL, BYLINE: Sangita Kalita says, for years, she watched as her mother and mother-in-law went to the local temple in Assam state in India. Their hope was always to read the sacred Hindu texts.
SANGITA KALITA: (Non-English language spoken).
EMANUEL: "Due to vision issues," Kalita says, "they faced a lot of problems seeing the small letters in the book, but glasses were too complicated and expensive." In many lower-resource settings, getting reading glasses requires a trip to the hospital or a specialized optical shop, often in a big city. Kalita is trying to change that. She works for VisionSpring and is stationed in a small town post office. From a kiosk she watches as customers come in.
KALITA: (Non-English language spoken).
EMANUEL: She explains that she watches which customers read the post office forms. When she notices them struggling, she approaches them to see if they'd like a quick eye test, and if they need it, they get a free pair of reading glasses. The United Nations initially had the idea of distributing eyeglasses using India Post's 150,000 offices. Late last year, VisionSpring decided to try it out. Shweta Verma is with the nonprofit.
SHWETA VERMA: The whole thinking was that we look at an established channel, which has a reach, which has infrastructure, which has people.
EMANUEL: So far, more than 5,000 people have been screened in five post offices. Verma says eyeglasses can make a big difference for a person's income. In Assam state, there's a lot of tea production. People need to see which delicate leaves to pick. The U.N. has expressed interest in expanding the model worldwide. While VisionSpring says this is a first for eyeglasses, it's following a few efforts around the world to tap post offices to provide health services.
ELISABETH ROSENTHAL: So in France, there's a service called Watch Over My Parents.
EMANUEL: Elisabeth Rosenthal is a physician and an editor at KFF Health News. She's written about repurposing post offices to address medical needs. She says in France, for a small fee, letter carriers can check on elderly individuals.
ROSENTHAL: Just stopping in and having a chat and kind of checking to see, is there food in the house? You know, are they able to get around OK?
EMANUEL: In Japan, there's something similar, and in some parts of the U.S., carriers can look for mail piling up and alert a local agency to initiate a welfare check. In Kalita's post office in India, she says one thing motivates her.
KALITA: (Non-English language spoken).
EMANUEL: She says, "when I give them eyeglasses and notice the smile on their faces, I also feel very accomplished and happy, too." She's thinking of the teacher who no longer gets headaches each day, her mother and mother-in-law who can now read the sacred texts, the tailor who never knew that reading glasses could be so life-changing and that getting them could be as easy as swinging by the post office.
Gabrielle Emanuel, NPR News.
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