The Reading Glass Project: Making a Difference Up Close

By Katherine Preston, September 16, 2014

“Never believe that a few caring people can't change the world. For indeed that's all who ever have.” - Margaret Mead

When our Adventurer-in-Chief, Rena Thiagarajan, traveled to Hanoi for Project Bly’s Vietnam Collection one of her first ports of call was 54 Traditions, the tribal art and antiques gallery run by retired-doctor Mark Rapoport. As a typhoon whipped through Hanoi, Mark encouraged Rena to leave the city and travel hours north to the village of Ta Phin, in the Tonkinese Alps, to find the country’s most exquisite textiles. As she walked out the door, he asked her if she would take a handful of eyeglasses with her, as gifts for the old women of the tribe.

Arriving in Ta Phin a few days later, reading glasses in hand, Rena saw what a difference those few pairs of glasses could make.

For the older master craftswomen of these northern tribes, eyesight is central to their livelihood. Experts at intricate weaving, they squint with age, leaning closer and closer towards their prized textiles, unable to see the details they know should be there. Eventually they can no longer work.

An inexpensive pair of reading glasses gives these women back their livelihood, and their place in the community. It is small gift that makes the world of difference.

If one traveler, bringing a handful of reading glasses, can make that kind of an impact, imagine what a fleet of travelers, across the globe could do.

In answer to that question, Jackie Hunsicker created the Reading Glass Project.

Having discovered the power of eyeglasses in much the same way as Rena, through a chance encounter with Mark Rapoport, Jackie took 53 pairs of glasses to the artisans of Cat Cat village in Vietnam’s Tonkinese Alps. Soon after this trip, Jackie founded the Reading Glass Project. She had just celebrated her 60th birthday.

With the aim of hand-delivering glasses to artisans most in need, the non-profit connects with people already taking trips to remote, far away places. They send them as many tax-deductible glasses as they can carry, guide them through the process of hiring a driver and a translator, and let them handle the rest. At the end, as Jackie puts, “It is hard to tell who is helped more by the project.”

Today, the Reading Glass Project has found its way into remote villages across the world, and Jackie has personally hand-delivered glasses everywhere from Uganda to Haiti.

Often she takes these trips alone. As she puts it, “Traveling alone has its own treasures. It opens up your heart, your senses, your wonder, your soul…when the rhythm of traveling takes over you become the best person you can be.”

For someone who has lived through multiple careers, from filmmaking to entrepreneurship, Jackie describes her life as a study in “making something out of nothing”. We would put it a little differently. We would say that she has made something out of a great deal of kindness.