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Why James Chen is a man on mission to restore eyesight for all by 2035

The Hong-Kong businessman is using the wealth generated by his family’s business for greater good. He tells Zlata Rodionova that philanthropy is not about writing big cheques

Sunday 08 December 2019 01:24 GMT
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Chen wants to sort the world’s eyesight out before humans are sent to Mars
Chen wants to sort the world’s eyesight out before humans are sent to Mars

Futurist and inventor Elon Musk wants to send humans to Mars by the 2030s but James Chen has a no less ambitious mission: making sure the whole world can see the landing clearly when it happens.

For the past 15 years the philanthropist has been trying to tackle poor vision. According to Chen, the pace of innovation can be overwhelming when compared with the lack of progress in technology designed to tackle the most basic challenges still facing the developing world, from access to food and clean water to a simple pair of corrective glasses.

“We really want to solve the ‘vision issue’ before Nasa or Elon Musk put a man or a woman on Mars because we want everyone on Earth to be able to see it,” he says.

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