For those who work in the textile industry, local tailors, rug makers, bike mechanics, weavers, artisans, and anyone who needs to see up close for their profession, the loss of near vision during prime working years can affect their ability to earn a living and support a family. VisionSpring was founded on a very basic principle: “If you can’t see, you can’t work.” In the years since, VisionSpring has broadened the scope of our work to include the distribution of prescription eyeglasses with the understanding that “If you can’t see, you can’t learn.” Recent research conducted in China determined that correcting vision in primary school students is the equivalent of an additional 1/3 – 1/2 year of schooling. Despite this opportunity to have an enormous impact on the working poor and students in the developing world, the market has failed to meet the needs of this demographic often referred to as the BoP consumer.
VisionSpring was founded by Dr. Jordan Kassalow, a practicing optometrist who has dedicated his life to improving vision and economic opportunity in the developing world. Jordan's work as an eye doctor and public health expert has taken him on scores of medical missions to countries all over the developing world. During these visits, in which he and other Western doctors provided eye care and free glasses to people who otherwise had little access to vision care, Jordan experienced two profound revelations:
First, Jordan realized that a large number of the patients he treated — over 40% — simply needed a pair of non-prescription eyeglasses, the kind found in drugstores all over the US. Yet the people he met were losing their jobs and their livelihoods simply because this affordable, mass-produced product was not available in their area.
Second, he noticed that, above all, people needed jobs. Thus, the idea for VisionSpring was born.
In 2001, Dr. Jordan Kassalow co-founded Scojo Foundation. In 2008, Scojo Foundation changed its name to VisionSpring, launching a new identity reflecting its mission to reduce poverty and generate opportunity in the developing world through vision.
Today, VisionSpring serves tens of thousands of poor customers across the developing world with affordable eyeglasses. Together with partners, including some of the world's largest NGOs and the most innovative Base-of-the-Pyramid organizations, VisionSpring is providing sustainable jobs and access to vision care in the world's poorest, most remote communities.
A multi-year winner of Fast Company's Social Capitalist Award, VisionSpring has been recognized for its high-impact, cutting-edge work by The Economist, The International Herald Tribune, Foreign Affairs, and NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams. President Bill Clinton has remarked that VisionSpring's work "will help hundreds of thousands of people and in the process create a whole new sector of the economy
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