Programs
Vision Health International was founded in 1985 to serve communities around the world with vision care. While much of our work over the years has taken place in Latin America, we added domestic field programs to our organizational portfolio in 2018. We are proud to serve underserved communities in the U.S. and around the world. We provide high-quality, direct patient care to the communities we serve through international and domestic field programs. Our services include comprehensive eye exams, life-altering surgeries, prosthetic eyes, dispensing of eyeglasses and protective eyewear, and more. Key to the success of our field programs are partnerships with host communities. We schedule programs only at the invitation of—and in collaborations with—local leaders, regional or national officials, or eye care or medical professionals. We partner with at least one local organization for each field program; from local clinicians or physicians, to governmental agencies, to nonprofit organizations. We deliver services in local clinics or hospital facilities, often with the assistance of local personnel. Return trips to many program sites enable us to build long-lasting relationships with local partners and patients.
We expanded programming in the wake of COVID-19 to include sponsorship of continued education for internationally-based medical professionals, as well as financial resources to remove barriers to surgical eye care abroad. We also recently launched a domestic model for our field programs, whereby we host one- or two-day, free eye clinics and provide vision screenings and glasses to those in need in underserved communities in the U.S. Learn more about our programs below.
Field Program in Ethiopia (Thank you to Aaron Levenson/Weema Photography)
Pop-up Clinic in Hartford, Connecticut
We host one- or two-day free pop-up eye clinics to provide much-needed eye care to many under-resourced communities in the U.S. Leading up to a scheduled pop-up clinic, we partner with local, community-based organizations and ophthalmology clinics to reach and recruit patients in need. During the clinic, our team does comprehensive vision exams and provides patients with prescription eyeglasses and the appropriate ophthalmic medical care they urgently need. If you’re interested in partnering with us to host a clinic in your community, please reach out!
We plan and implement a number of week-long service trips each year, for which we recruit dedicated vision care professionals and highly-qualified personnel to volunteer their time to deliver high-quality vision care to the local community. VHI field programs offer the experience of a lifetime—we work with communities with little to no access to eye care who are grateful for the high-quality care we provide.
Sponsorship of surgical care
In 2020 VHI launched a sponsorship program to devote a portion of organizational funding to cover the financial and logistical costs for patients in partner clinics in Honduras and Guatemala to receive life-altering (mostly surgical) care they need. While we are unable to consistently travel internationally to provide in-person care at this time, these funds allow the most vulnerable to obtain care they desperately need.
Kay Whitten Scholarship fund
They Kay Whiten scholarship was started in 2017 to address the reality that financial considerations often deter, if not preclude, qualified, interested volunteers from participating on VHI field programs. (Learn more about applying for the scholarship program here!) In 2020, as a way to continue fulfilling our mission in light of COVID-19 and limited ability to travel internationally, we expanded the Kay Whitten Scholarship fund to provide money for continuing education for eye care professionals in under-resourced countries.
At VHI, we’ve always had an emphasis on building local capacity for providing high-quality eye care and have established longstanding partnerships with local clinics and organizations in a number of different countries. One barrier we’ve identified is the lack of affordable training opportunities for local individuals to receive the education needed to become a qualified eye care professional. The expansion of the Kay Whitten Scholarship Fund provides scholarships for continuing education for international students and, in turn, equips local clinics and enables VHI to build capacity for international partners to have local health care professionals to provide high-quality eye care on an ongoing basis.