Where we have been,
where we are going.

Founded in 2001 with the goal of reaching and providing affordable, quality glasses to the 1 billion people worldwide who need them, we have come far in the years since. Learn more about our past achievements and get to understand our journey.




The defining moment

I can trace my sense of purpose and inspiration for VisionSpring to a defining moment when I was 23 years old. While on a volunteer medical mission in the Yucatán Peninsula, I arrived at the project site to find 2,000 people waiting in line to have their eyes checked.

One of those patients was a 7-year-old boy, carrying a book in braille. The boy’s family explained he was blind from birth. Yet, as I examined his eyes I observed he wasn’t blind at all. Rather, he was extremely myopic—meaning his sight could be corrected with just a strong pair of glasses.

I rummaged up a pair of donated glasses and gently placed them on his nose and watched as his blank, blind stare transformed into an expression of unadulterated joy. He was seeing the world for the first time.

As I provided the boy his sight, he provided me with a keen sense of purpose and novel understanding: the only thing standing between 2.5 billion people and their ability to get an education, earn a living, return home to their families safe and sound at night, and fulfill their human potential is a simple pair of glasses.

And so began my desire to replicate this moment thousands of times over, culminating in the founding of VisionSpring and changing millions of lives across the globe, one pair of glasses at a time.



Celebrating 20 Years of Clear Vision for Everyone

 

 

Who We Are

VisionSpring is the social enterprise accelerating the use of eyeglasses in emerging and frontier markets.

Our Mission

To increase lifelong earning, learning, safety, and well-being through eyeglasses for people vulnerable to poverty.*

*Vulnerable to poverty refers to people living on less that $4 per day

Our Core Belief

We believe in the wonder of clear vision for everyone.

What We Do

  • Deliver optical products and services

  • Develop markets for eyeglasses

  • Catalyze collective action

  • Influence systems change

 

 

Our Big Goal

Everyone who needs eyeglasses will have them by 2050.

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