Once again this year, the Miranza IBO clinic—one of the two centers of the Group in Palma de Mallorca—has joined the humanitarian program Vacaciones en Paz to provide free eye exams to Sahrawi children from refugee camps located in Algeria’s Tindouf province. This initiative, which the Balearic clinic has supported since 2014, has so far enabled eye health check-ups for 200 children between the ages of 10 and 12.
A group of 15 Sahrawi children visited our clinic to undergo a comprehensive eye examination, carried out by a team specialized in pediatric eye health, led by Dr. Alfonso Castanera, a pediatric ophthalmology specialist at Miranza IBO and an international authority on strabismus. As Dr. Alfonso Castanera explains, “the examinations performed on these children help to detect common childhood vision problems—such as refractive errors or eye misalignments—at an early stage. If left uncorrected, these conditions can impact academic performance and personal development.”
The pediatric ophthalmologist also points out that “early intervention is essential to ensure proper visual development and to improve these children’s quality of life at a crucial stage of their growth.”
Children who require treatment following diagnosis will receive it thanks to the support of Opticalia Lux in Palma de Mallorca, which will provide glasses at no cost to those in need, thereby offering a significant improvement in their visual quality.
Vacaciones en Paz is an initiative promoted in the Balearic Islands by the Association of Friends of the Sahrawi People (AAPSIB), aimed at improving the living conditions of refugee children by combining the hosting experience with both basic and specialized healthcare. The collaboration of medical institutions like Miranza helps expand the reach of this solidarity network and ensures comprehensive medical care for children who would otherwise have limited access to these resources in their places of origin.
