The World Health Organization (WHO) has adopted social enterprise VisionSpring’s model to equip primary healthcare providers with the skills they need to identify presbyopia, dispense reading glasses and refer for other eye conditions in remote and impoverished regions.
In consultation with VisionSpring founder Dr Jordan Kassalow, WHO developed the Training in Assistive Products (TAP) initiative, designed to help governments and health providers increase the uptake of reading glasses. TAP is an open-source online learning platform to improve access to assistive technologies, which also includes walking aids and emergency wheelchairs. Where they are less readily available in remote and impoverished regions, spectacles have been shown to improve productivity, reduce depression and anxiety, and increase participation in community and family life for those in need, according to a VisionSpring statement.
Since its 2001 inception, VisionSpring has tested various ways to empower entrepreneurs to screen patients and sell spectacles to villagers in remote areas, including in India, Rwanda, Uganda, Guatemala, South Africa and Bangladesh. The company’s ‘double-bottom-line’ model is intended to drive positive social impact in addition to financial returns, with a VisionSpring statement explaining that high-quality glasses only cost a few dollars to make, so the challenge is in the cost of distribution. In 2008, the company refined its model by partnering with organisations with strong presences in each target nation and claims to have sold 6.8m pairs of glasses, equating to a US$1.4bn economic impact since its foundation.
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