By Aminah Yoba, VP of Philanthropy and Mark Lorey, VP of Programs and Global Impact at RestoringVision
RestoringVision, a global nonprofit dedicated to creating equitable access to vision services and eyeglasses for individuals living on less than $2 a day worldwide, is delighted to collaborate with the Vision Catalyst Fund through its Eye Health Accelerator grant, a high-impact investment of $50,000 to realize the full potential of an innovative program that the VCF currently supports in Peru.
RestoringVision’s cutting-edge, one-of-a kind program model, launched in 2019 in collaboration with MSH Peru, an affiliate of Management Sciences for Health US, is focused on providing access to vision screenings and reading glasses for aging individuals served through the PENSIÓN 65 Program of Peru’s Ministry of Development and Social Inclusion. The PENSIÓN 65 Program was established as a safety net to support Peruvians aged 65 and above who live in extreme poverty. What began as a pilot project reaching 55,000 individuals in 2021 is now scaling to serve 500,000 ageing Peruvians from 2022-2024 through the support of eyeglasses donations currently being provided by the VCF and OneSight EssilorLuxottica Foundation.
Now, with the support of the new Eye Health Accelerator grant, RestoringVision will focus on further developing this innovative program, focused on three key objectives:
Define forward-looking approaches to sustainability and recommend a strategy to ensure the impact of this pioneering program can be sustained for many years to come, serving hundreds of thousands of aged Peruvians living in extreme poverty.
Generate evidence of the remarkable impact of reading glasses from VCF/RestoringVision delivered through PENSIÓN 65 in the lives of diverse recipients of these. This evidence will advance systemic changes, policies, and practices that will enable the scaling and sustainability of reading glasses provision through advocacy. The evidence will also be used as a basis for advocating for replication of this approach in other country contexts, potentially enabling RestoringVision to reach many millions more people living in extreme poverty.
Identify potential countries across the world that have a social safety net pension program like Peru’s PENSIÓN 65 and recommend which of these would be the best candidates for replication in the near future.
RestoringVision is thrilled to increase its impact with the continued support of VCF and to advance its organizational vision: a world in which everyone who needs glasses has them.
