On World Sight Day (13 October), American billionaire philanthropist Mackenzie Scott has announced he is gifting US$15m to VisionSpring, a social enterprise creating access to affordable eyecare. This gift is believed to be the largest, single private donation towards solving the problem of uncorrected vision as a poverty intervention.
The gift catalyses the launch of VisionSpring’s strategic initiative Livelihoods in Focus – a US$70m effort that it is hoped will create more than $1bn of new income among tea, coffee, cocoa and artisan workers in India, Bangladesh, Ghana, Kenya and Uganda by 2030.
Livelihoods in Focus builds on VisionSpring’s 20 years of experience and evidence gathering in the tea-growing region of Assam, India. A randomised-controlled trial there found that a simple pair of glasses lifts productivity by 22-32 per cent among workers. The plan is to extend the programme to new farming and artisan regions with similar characteristics, which has the potential to unlock more than $1bn in increased earnings for workers and their families.
Founded in 2001, VisionSpring works to address the systemic dysfunction of an optical market which has failed to deliver access to affordable eyeglasses for consumers earning less than $4 per day.
“The gift from Ms. Scott is an incredible acknowledgement of the power of a simple pair of eyeglasses to unlock earning, learning, safety and wellbeing for people vulnerable to poverty”, said CEO of VisionSpring Ella Gudwin. “And, with this powerful endorsement of our work, we are embarking on a multi-year journey to put Livelihoods in Focus, addressing the massive vision care gap among agricultural and artisan workers in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. We need many more philanthropic investors, along with governments, companies and NGOs to join in bringing the wonder of clear vision to everyone.”
VisionSpring says it routinely finds that 65-85 per cent of workers acquiring glasses through its vision access programmes have never had their sight tested before.
Dr Jordan Kassalow, founder of VisionSpring, said: “It is a big win for the sector as a whole and all of the organisations working on an issue that has been hiding in plain sight.”
Learn more about VisionSpring here.