The idea is to help children realize by themselves they are not seeing as clear as they could. To do so, we gave students glasses made of paper. Instead of graduated crystals, Paper Glasses are made with pinholes that generate the stenopeic effect to improve the visual acuity.

The Stenopeic Effect is a physical optics effect that increases the depth of field. When allowing only a very narrow beam of light to enter the eye, there is no convergence, achieving clear vision at any distance.

Paper Glasses works as a simple vision test to help children stay at school.

As its name suggests, Paper Glasses are made of 150gr. paper and 2mm. pinholes with a 2mm separation. To attach them into Santillana's School Guide, they have an extra 5cm piece of paper to be adhered to the guide as another sheet without using any extra materials.

On the previous page, there is an explanation directed to the student. We made sure to create a simple enough text with big letters that all children could understand; such text instructs them to inform their teacher if Paper Glasses gives them better focus on objects or if it helps them read better.

In the Teacher’s guide, we include information about the Stenopeic Effect and more detailed instructions about how to use Paper Glasses as a first visual test.

On first trials, Paper Glasses identified 10% of the cases of students who need glasses without knowing it.

Due to Santillana’s wide reach, more than 3 million School Guides with Paper Glasses will be distributed all over the country, so we’re confident this initiative will have a positive impact in Mexican Education. Furthermore, once Save The Children takes the idea to countries in the same situation, Paper Glasses could give a clearer future to many children in 120 countries.

Mexico faces several social problems, from escalating violence to drug smuggling. Most of those problems are linked to the inconsistency of the educational system; without access to a solid education, millions of children struggle to emerge from poverty and lead productive, fulfilling lives.

A Government institution (SEP) regulates education, even accreditation of private schools, so it’s no easy task for an association like Save The Children to act with students.

Paper Glasses is not only a visual test to help children stay in school, it’s also a strategy to raise awareness about the education situation in the country.

To reach millions of students, including those in rural communities, Save The Children joined forces with Santillana, leading educational publisher. Paper Glasses come attached with each copy of Santillana's school guide that children receive every term.

To tell everyone about the idea, we launched a WebVideo supported by influencers, a print campaign, and Save The Children and Santillana's owned media.

We also used a direct mailing strategy targeted to specialized media.

All efforts lead to our YouTube Channel, where people could follow the experience of the first students that received Paper Glasses.

Quickly, the media picked up the story, just in time for the new school term.

An estimate of 75% of school dropout cases in Mexico are related to visual impairment; but it’s a real challenge to reach all schools to apply eye examinations student by student, specially in isolated communities.