Author: Corinne Waldon

We greatly appreciate the support of donors, whose generosity enables us to support projects like this optometry school in Nicaragua.

Optometry Giving Sight (OGS) has selected FluoreSCENE Media as its official social media partner to help expand the organization’s reach with eye care professionals as the charity of choice for the ODs on Facebook Community. As optometry’s charity, OGS has a mission to end preventable blindness and vision impairment due to uncorrected refractive error. FluoreSCENE Media is the home to the eye care industry’s online conversation with its flagship media community, ODs on Facebook, engaging more than 46,000 eye care professionals.

“We are excited to partner with Dr. Alan Glazier and his team at FluoreSCENE Media, knowing that our vision of a world with universal access to vision and eye care services will reach the largest and most engaged online community of eye care professionals,” said Lois Schoenbrun, CAE (Ret.), FAAO, Executive Director of Optometry Giving Sight. “Our goal is to bring greater awareness to our global efforts via social media in an effort to engage more optometrists in our mission.”

For 20 years, OGS funding has provided funding for basic eye care services to more than 8 million people, supported training of more than 14,000 eye care professionals, funded the establishment of more than 130 vision centers, and served people in more than 40 countries. Rather than funding mission projects that only provide eye exams and glasses, OGS funds the establishment of optometry schools, vision centers, and optical labs. Individuals receive education and training to become optometrists who then stay in their communities to provide ongoing eye care services for years to come. In addition to the thousands who become optometrists, OGS funding contributes to creating opportunities for the millions of people who receive vision care and can now see clearly and better achieve their potential.

“Optometry Giving Sight is truly one of our industry’s most impactful charities. Our goal is to educate our members about the organization’s services and impacts worldwide. We know that eye care professionals will step up to contribute to this great cause when they understand how their support will make a difference in someone’s life and positively impact their future,” said Alan Glazier, OD, FAAO, Dipl. ABO, Founder and President of FluoreSCENE Media.

FluoreSCENE Media is home to the eye care industry’s online conversation. For more than ten years, the ODs on Facebook community has hosted the most active social media discussion in the eye care industry, engaging more than 46,000 eye care professionals. FluoreSCENE Media also reaches an audience of tens of thousands via LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter, providing community, career, and educational resources. The company’s social networks combined with its targeted industry email newsletters provide a unique platform to connect Optometry Giving Sight with eye care professionals.

The new partnership kicks off this week at Vision Expo East in New York City where Optometry Giving Sight will be included as one of the sponsors of the annual ODs on Facebook Party on Friday, March 17. Attendees can learn more about OGS and how they can contribute to the organization during the gathering.

Optometry Giving Sight is pleased to announce a newly expanded partnership with VuePoint IDS publications, including CRO (Clinical & Refractive Optometry) Journal and Optik Magazine for the 2023 calendar year. VuePoint IDS, a long-time supporter of OGS, was honored at the Beacon of Light Recognition Event held at Vision Expo West this past September in Las Vegas. The event recognized those individuals and companies that had generously donated more than $100,000 to OGS over the lifetime of the organization so it could meet its mission to end preventable blindness and vision impairment in underserved communities around the world.

This longstanding partnership will be expanded during 2023. VuePoint IDS will provide more than $100,000 of in-kind advertising to OGS in 2023 alone, across all of its Optik print and digital publications, as well as its Clinical & Refractive Optometry online continuing education platform, enabling OGS to reach an audience it may not have had easy access to before. The type and level of market saturation and reach being made available with this expanded partnership will enable OGS to continue to meet its mission to reduce the prevalence of preventable blindness and vision impairment.

Doctors of Optometry will also be able to donate to Optometry Giving Sight when registering for CE courses through CRO.

At her primary school in Cienega de Zimatlan, Mexico, Yamilet Castellanos struggled to see her books and the whiteboard at the front of the class. She describes what she went through in school as follows:

“I was constantly asking the teacher to give me a seat in the front lines – because when she asked me to sit in the rear lines I couldn’t see the board.”

Her father Remundo was badly injured in an accident and has been unable to work. The family’s meager income comes from the tortillas Yamilet’s mother, Maria, makes and sells in the community.

Both her parents suspected Yami, as her parents call her, had an eye problem but were unable to access vision care services due to their extremely limited resources.

Maria commented, “When she would write the homework, to do, it was incorrect.”

Yami also knew there was a problem.

However, one day her life changed because a proper eye exam was performed, and the right prescription recorded. A new – free pair of glasses, especially made for children in Mexico – was chosen.

Yami can see, learn, and play like other children in this rural community. This result was made possible through a partnership between the Ver Bien Foundation, an organization in Mexico committed to providing optometric care and high quality eyeglasses to all children in public schools in Mexico, and Optometry Giving Sight to provide vision services in Yami’s village. We can’t do what we do without the entire OGS community. Yami’s story is made possible by that community – by YOU!

For her parents, there is relief and gratitude, as noted by Remundo. “I’m very thankful for all the help and all the countries that are helping to provide visual help to the children of Mexico.”

As we conclude the Spring Campaign and move into the warm weather of the summer months, please remember Yami, Kiet whom you met earlier this year, and the graduates of the optometry school in Malawi, all stories authored by people like YOU. We must continue to create magic together and provide the gift of sight and hope, on a long-term, sustainable basis, so no one in need of vision care ever goes without. Please join us today by making a closing gift to our Spring Campaign using the donate button at the top of the page or by clicking here.

Thank you to all of our generous and committed donors for the ongoing impact you make!

Donations to Optometry Giving Sight make an impact by giving sight to people in need through the projects we fund. One of our funding priorities is to train local people as optometrists in the communities in which they live, all over the world. One of the most successful optometry schools we fund is in Mzuzu, Malawi. 

Dr. Allan Jones, an optometrist and one of our “boots on the ground” through our funding of Canadian Vision Care, offered the following testimonial about the work at the school and some of its students:

“I was setting up vision screenings with the optometry school in Mzuzu, Malawi. They were interesting as we had two buses of students at these clinics. We have another fifteen children screenings planned. I brought five suitcases of new ophthalmoscopes, retinoscopes, Volk lenses and a portable autorefractor for the school, along with numerous small items like occluders, near point cards and arclights for all the students.

I have spent a fair bit of time getting equipment functional and teaching repairs. The school is doing great, and OGS can be proud of this school. By February, there will be over 100 graduated optometrists! Quite the accomplishment – thanks to OGS!! With the increased class size, this number will increase quickly.

I am now in the southern part to do some clinics with graduates. Hopefully, another 600 children will receive first eye exams. There are three eye hospitals I am visiting with hopes of placing optometrists there.”

As Dr. Jones attests, the students in Mzuzu are making a tangible difference in their communities. You can see their pride as they graduate and receive their OGS white coats! Their dreams of becoming optometrists have come true. Their dreams of helping their fellow citizens are coming true. YOU have helped make those dreams come true.

Donations from people like you make possible the training of future optometrists around the world. The school in Mzuzu, Malawi is just one example of the training your dollars help fund. Each graduate will go on to help hundreds of people each year. Together, we can continue to grow optometry wherever it is needed.