"The question I have always asked myself is 'what would have happened to all these people who have benefited from Unite For Sight programs had the organization not come to their aid?' It is likely that many would have perished in their agony."--Dr. James Clarke, Crystal Eye Clinic, Unite For Sight Partner in Ghana
What Do Volunteers Do?
Volunteers participate in hands-on clinical service while assisting eye doctors in rural villages, refugee camps, and slums. Volunteers are immersed in international health and development programs while providing eye care to patients living in extreme poverty.
The goal of Unite For Sight and its partner eye clinics and communities is to create eye disease-free communities. Unite For Sight's volunteers (local and visiting) work with partner eye clinics to provide eye care in communities without previous access. The eye clinic's eye doctors and Unite For Sight volunteers jointly provide community-based screening programs in rural villages. The clinic's eye doctors diagnose and treat eye disease in the field, and surgical patients are brought to the eye clinic for surgery. Patients receive free surgery funded by Unite For Sight so that no patient remains blind due to lack of funds. Volunteers immediately see the joy on patients' faces when their sight is restored after years of blindness. These memories last a lifetime.
While helping the community, volunteers are in a position to witness and draw their own conclusions about the failures and inequities of global health systems. It broadens their view of what works, and what role they can have to insure a health system that works for everyone and that leaves no person blind in the future.
Save Eyes and Lives. Every Eye, A Life.
Those who are blind in Africa have a four times higher mortality rate
60-80% of children who become blind die within 1-2 years
80% of blindness is curable or preventable
WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF VOLUNTEERS LIKE YOU, UNITE FOR SIGHT HAS RESTORED SIGHT TO 10,062 PATIENTS AND PROVIDED EYE CARE TO 300,000 IN 2006 AND 2007
Unite For Sight's work to prevent blindness and restore sight is featured weekly on CNN INTERNATIONAL from September 2007-August 2008
Who is eligible to volunteer abroad?
Volunteers are 18 years and older, and there is no upper age limit. Volunteers range from undergraduate students to medical students, public health students and professionals, nurses, educators, opticians, optometrists and ophthalmologists. Non-eye care professionals serve as community-based assistants for local eye doctors. Optometrists and ophthalmologists provide optometric and ophthalmic care for patients while also providing skills transfer for the local eye care professionals.
