We began with one South Auckland pilot school, screening children’s vision and providing optometry services in partnership with the Auckland University Vision Science team. We found that 30% of students needed a full optometry check, and 80% of those went on to receive funded glasses.

 

Since then, we’ve built our own screening system, screening over 9,000 Auckland students in 2025, and launched a mobile optometry clinic called Celia (named after the amazing Celia Lashlie), which, when fully funded, can provide around 7,000 sets of glasses a year.

We now screen in over 60 high Equity Index primary and intermediate schools across Auckland, with Celia providing full optometry support and Painga Project-funded glasses.