Our Solutions

Becoming a Volunteer on a Vision Clinic

VOSH/International and VOSH Chapters are volunteers. That means that those who come on a clinic trip take time away from their jobs and families, pay their own expenses, including airfare and lodging, as well as other expenses. It is what makes VOSH VOSH! We are proud of that.

Our volunteers are licensed optometrists, opticians, health care providers and lay people. There are clinic trips both domestically as well as internationally, in over 30 countries, serving hundreds of thousands of patients.

Choosing a Location for a Mission Clinic

VOSH/International and VOSH Chapters select eye care clinic locations based on assessment of need, local access to quality care and local support.

Also considered is the potential for building strong relationships with local government, health and eye care providers, risk of overlap with the work of other organizations and opportunity to train local educators and professionals and for development of sustainable clinics.

Selecting a Partner on a Mission Clinic

In order to provide eye care to those who do not have access to it, it is imperative that we partner with local municipalities and governmental organizations to import our equipment and the glasses we dispense. We collaborate with local service groups such as Lions Clubs, Kiwanis, and others to make sure we meet the needs of the local patients.

In those locations in which we are helping to develop sustainable eye care clinics, we select partners who will support our goal to help educate local professionals and to provide quality eye care on a continuous basis.

Supplying the glasses on a Mission Clinic

This can be tricky since today there are so many baggage restrictions and the expenses are great. We have recently started bringing equipment to make glasses on site.

Donate/Request Equipment

Through a Technology Transfer Program (TTP), VOSH accepts donated optometric equipment and glasses, refurbishes it and then sends it to schools, clinics and VOSH mission clinics where it can lead a new purpose and change lives.

Promoting Optometric Education

One of the greatest impediments to the education of optometrists in developing countries is the lack of local optometry schools and the optometric educators to teach in these institutions.

As a solution to this global issue, VOSH, with Optometry Giving Sight and The Brien Holden Vision Institute, has created the VOSH Corps Program, which recruits and supports U.S. and Canadian optometrists to teach optometry for at least one year at these emerging optometry schools in the world’s poorest countries. Then that education is carried on by the brightest students from these schools who become the new teaching faculty.