Millions of people are functionally blind simply because they don't have eyeglasses.
Yet in some developing countries, an eye exam and glasses can be provided for just $5.
For about the cost of a latte, you can change someone's life by providing them with eyeglasses.
Optometry Giving Sight is the only global fundraising initiative specifically targeting the elimination of blindness and impaired vision due to "uncorrected refractive error" — that is, nearsightedness or farsightedness that is uncorrected simply because individuals don't have access to vision care and glasses.
Consider the following:
- While uncorrected vision is one of the world's leading causes of preventable blindness, it is also the most treatable.
- 670 million people are needlessly blind or vision impaired simply because they lack access to the glasses or eye care they need.
- The World Health Organization (WHO) states that blindness prevention and vision correction rank with immunizations among the most cost effective of all health interventions.
- Sight can make the difference between a life of poverty and a life of opportunity. By enabling someone to see clearly for the first time, their chances of living a less isolated and more fulfilling life are vastly increased. Children who can see the writing on a school-board now have the opportunity to get a proper education. Adults can find jobs that allow them to provide not only for themselves, but also their families.
- Through programs funded by Optometry Giving Sight, it can cost as little as $5 to provide an individual in the developing world with an eye examination and a pair of glasses. In many of these locales, there is simply no existing infrastructure to provide eye exams and eyeglasses.
- Optometry Giving Sight guarantees that 85% of every dollar donated by eye care professionals and the public go directly to support projects that provide vision care, local training and infrastructure support for people in underserved communities.
It would be challenging to find another cause where your charitable dollar can be so impactful.
Giving Sight to Millions
Optometry Giving Sight supports programs that not only offer eye exams and glasses, but also establish vision centers and train local eye care professionals in communities with little or no access to eye care services. In 2010, funds donated to Optometry Giving Sight helped to provide ongoing funding to eight vision centers and train 683 eye care professionals across 16 countries.
Success Stories
Emmanuel
When a team funded by Optometry Giving Sight visited a village in Malawi, Africa, they found 120 children in a program for the blind. However, after performing eye examinations, they found that only seven of the children were permanently blind. Emmanuel was one of the children who was very nearsighted, but simply needed eyeglasses. Read more...
Donglian
18-year-old Donglian had never had her eyes checked before a local team of eye care professionals came to her school in a poor, remote, mountainous area of the Guangdong province. Although she couldn't see the chalkboard in school, she didn't want to complain. But her close friends felt it was their duty to speak up. Read more...
Jose de Costa
Jose had cataract surgery and needed very strong +12.00D glasses to see afterward. Things were fine until his glasses broke, and there was no way for him to get new glasses in his remote area of East Timor. For several years he lived as a blind man until an Optometry Giving Sight funded program came to his area. Read more...
READ about more lives that have been transformed through the gift of vision
Reproduction of any images or text from this website is prohibited by copyright law.