Building a Legacy of Care: New Vision Centers in India and Somalia.
Grantees: Mission for Vision and Aden Adde International University.
Each year, donations to Optometry Giving Sight (OGS) enable us to issue grants to fund projects globally that provide immediate eye care to those in need today, and expand optometry so vision care is available for years to come.
Expanding access to eye care in underserved communities requires more than short-term interventions—it requires a permanent, locally rooted presence. Two of Optometry Giving Sight’s recent grants are funding vision centers in India and Somalia, which demonstrate how establishing sustainable vision centers can transform the health of a community for generations.
In the rural Fatehpur District of Uttar Pradesh, India, Mission for Vision’s “Mission Jyot” vision center project is building a primary eye care hub where none existed before. In this region, preventable blindness often persists simply because the nearest clinic is too far or too expensive for the average family. In partnership with the trusted Shri Sadguru Seva Sangh Trust hospitals, this new vision center is designed to bring comprehensive screenings and treatments directly to a population that has historically been left behind.
The scale of Mission Jyot is ambitious. Over the next three years, the center expects to screen more than 18,000 people through a combination of facility-based care and mobile outreach camps that travel to remote villages. Beyond standard exams, the project will provide over 1,400 pairs of eyeglasses and facilitate nearly 700 sight-restoring cataract surgeries for those requiring advanced treatment. By prioritizing school screening programs and door-to-door awareness efforts, the initiative is catching vision problems early and shifting the local culture toward proactive eye health.
In Mogadishu, the Himilo Eye Trust vision center, led by Aden Adde International University, is a newly launched initiative to provide free, comprehensive eye care services. The grant will be used to establish a fully equipped eye examination center offering free exams, affordable glasses, medications, and cataract surgeries in partnership with Charity Vision Somalia.
The center will also serve as a clinical training site for 50 optometry students, addressing the shortage of skilled eye care professionals and strengthening the future workforce. By combining service delivery with education, the project aims to reduce preventable blindness and improve visual health outcomes for underserved communities. The Himilo Eye Trust vision center is designed to become self-sustaining through the affordable sale of glasses and eye drops, with a goal to cover at least 50 percent of operational costs in the first year. The project is locally led, embedded within Somali institutions, and supported by strong partnerships with the Somali Optometry Association and Charity Vision Somalia.
A Lasting Foundation
While these two projects operate in different environments, they share a common DNA: sustainability. Both function as social enterprises, targeting financial self-sufficiency within a few years by leveraging a cross-subsidy model: modest service fees and eyewear sales to paying customers fund care for those in need.
By investing in these permanent foundations, we are helping to build a future where quality eye care is not a one-time gift, but a lasting, local reality that the community owns and sustains. Your donations make a difference now and into the future.
