Medical Eye Care
This includes medical (ophthalmic) treatment and surgery for eye diseases and disorders, optometric treatment and eyeglass prescriptions, and public health efforts to control the spread of communicable eye diseases. To date, most such support has gone to developing world programs.
Courtesy of Geoff Oliver Bugbee/Orbis
Case Study Highlights
Photo courtesy of Seva Foundation
Seva Foundation
In January 2017, the Fund approved a three-year grant of $428,937 to the Seva Foundation, to help expand the capacity of two mentor eye clinics in Latin America-- Visualiza Eye Clinic in Guatemala City, Guatemala, and Divino Nino Jesus (DNJ) Eye Clinic in Lima, Peru-- to train Allied Ophthalmic Personnel (AOPs) through strengthened curricula.
Courtesy of Fred Hollows Foundation USA
Fred Hollows Foundation USA
In January 2020, the Fund approved a 12-month grant of $50,000 to the Fred Hollows Foundation to support the provision of free or subsidized cataract surgeries for 500 patients in the Greater Hanoi, Vietnam area by Alina Vision, a social enterprise eye hospital dedicated to reducing preventable blindness and visual impairment in Vietnam.
Courtesy of LVPEI.
LV Prasad Eye Institute
In 2015, the Fund approved a three-year grant (subsequently extended to 58 months) of $743,146 to L V Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI), a world-class provider of comprehensive clinical ophthalmology services in India, to build the sustainable capacity of 30 L V Prasad vision centers in the Indian state of Telangana. The construction project was to consist of two main goals: (1) to screen the vision of 750,000 children ages 0-16 in the centers’ catchment areas and (2) to provide prescription eyeglasses, advanced eye care, and/or low-vision and rehabilitation services to those children as needed, regardless of their ability to pay.
Courtesy of Rotary Internationals / Dr. Shroff’s Charity Eye Hospital
Dr. Shroff’s Charity Eye Hospital
In 2013, the Fund approved a grant of $473,679 to Dr. Shroff’s Charity Eye Hospital (SCEH) in New Delhi, India to build sustainable capacity for training additional numbers of new vision technicians, ophthalmic nursing assistants, and patient counselors. The overall goal of the project was to produce a combined total of 150 such trainees within the grant’s three-year life. SCEH expected ultimately to hire most of the graduates of the training and to use these cost-efficient “physician-extenders” to drive a near-doubling of the hospital’s yearly volume of cataract surgeries.