Sangha of Auspicious Companions

The $1 Visionary

A German math teacher couldn’t shake the fact that a billion people worldwide live with vision problems that could be solved with glasses — if only they could afford them. Martin Aufmuth retreated to his basement and emerged with a design for spectacles that cost one dollar to make, require no electricity to produce, and as he says, “You could run a jeep over it and it would not break.” The impact is both immediate and profound: a Brazilian boy seeing his mother’s face clearly for the first time, a Bolivian teacher able to read to her grandchild, a Malawian farmer gaining an extra month before hunger sets in. What began as one person’s refusal to accept inequality has grown into a network spanning 11 countries; yet, Aufmuth remains focused not on the million lives changed, but on the billion still waiting.

Be The Change

Think of a problem that has always bothered you, and ask yourself what it would it would look like to take one step towards its solution.