How Unite For Sight Works

Unite For Sight supports eye clinics worldwide by investing human and financial resources in their social ventures to eliminate patient barriers to eye care.  Our high-impact programs are sustainable, apply best practice principles in global health and eye care, and achieve positive change. 

Overview: Locally Led and Managed Eye Care Programs

In order to create effective, long-term change, eye care programs must be developed at the grass-roots level by local ophthalmologists who know the local eye care needs.  Unite For Sight’s role is to support local ophthalmologists in their social ventures to make a positive impact.  The program in which you will be working is developed by the local ophthalmologist, who leads (on a daily basis) his or her own ophthalmic staff, local community members, and you (the visiting Unite For Sight volunteer).

The outreach programs are comprised of the local eye clinic’s staff and Unite For Sight volunteers who travel daily as a team into remote villages and refugee camps to provide on-site eye care.  Patients requiring surgery are transported to the eye clinic and then brought back to their home village after their surgery, accompanied by a local volunteer. 

The Partnership That Provides Quality Eye Care For All

Unite For Sight's programs operate with a global team.

United States Staff

Unite For Sight’s headquarters are located in New Haven, Connecticut, and our staff coordinates our North American programs, international programs, and annual Global Health & Innovation Summit.  We have trained more than 8,300 volunteers who work in their local communities in the U.S. and abroad with local eye clinics to provide eye health programs for those who are otherwise without access. 

As a Global Impact Fellow, you will interact with the U.S.-based staff in preparation for your trip, including with your Global Impact Fellow Counselor.  Our staff is readily available to assist you in your preparation.  Additionally, our staff has worked extensively with each local eye clinic to develop Global Impact Training, which includes comprehensive training and materials to prepare each volunteer for their participation at the eye clinic abroad.   

Unite For Sight’s staff in the U.S. has extensive interaction with each local ophthalmologist, including daily communication regarding volunteer and program management.  The role of the U.S.-based staff is to assist and support the local ophthalmologist and the eye clinic.

The Local Eye Clinic, Led By The Local Ophthalmologist

Unite For Sight supports all of our partner eye clinics in their efforts to solve preventable blindness in their community.  The local ophthalmologist leads and directs the clinic’s staff in providing care to patients living in extreme poverty, which is critical in ensuring that healthcare delivery is effective and efficient.  Unite For Sight provides support to broaden the reach of the local doctors so that more patients have access to care.  Through your pre-service training and preparation process, Unite For Sight trains you to serve as support staff to the eye doctors in the field.  Your role as a volunteer is to assist the eye clinic’s staff in their work to eliminate patient barriers to care.

While abroad, you will interact with the ophthalmologist who leads the eye care programs, as well as with the clinic’s ophthalmic staff.  All staff members are locally hired and employed by the eye clinics, and most were employed by the clinic well before the clinic partnered with Unite For Sight.  The clinics continue to provide care to paying patients independent of Unite For Sight.  With Unite For Sight’s support, the eye clinics are able to reallocate their resources and obtain additional staff to provide eye care for patients living in extreme poverty, and, in doing so, double, triple, and in most cases, more than quadruple the number of surgeries that they provide annually.

Unite For Sight also develops communication channels between its partner eye clinics, each of which is a treasure trove of knowledge and best practices. Experiences, lessons learned, and methods that have been proven effective are exchanged between our eye clinic partners across three continents. 

Two Examples of Unite For Sight's Success

During 2009, 46% of all cataract surgeries done in Ghana were provided for patients living in extreme poverty by Unite For Sight's four partner eye clinics in the country. These 8,060 sight-restoring surgeries were coordinated and sponsored by Unite For Sight, and were provided by our four Ghanaian ophthalmologist partners. During 2008, Unite For Sight sponsored 5,011 of the 14,053 cataract surgeries done by Ghanaian eye clinics - 36% of all cataract surgeries done in Ghana that year. Five of the 45 ophthalmologists in Ghana are now partners of Unite For Sight, and these five ophthalmologists are providing more than half of all surgeries done in the country.

Tamale, Ghana

In Tamale, Ghana, ophthalmologist Dr. Wanye is the only eye doctor for the 2 million people in this region. Prior to working with Unite For Sight, Dr. Wanye often went months without performing a single cataract surgery because the community members could not afford the cost. Since 2005, Unite For Sight has provided human and financial resources for Dr. Wanye's programs. With the support of Unite For Sight, Dr. Wanye now provides over 2,500 cataract surgeries each year. Additionally, Dr. Wanye and his team provide eye care for more than 65,000 patients per year who are living in extreme poverty.

Accra, Ghana

In Accra, Ghana, Unite For Sight's support has enabled Crystal Eye Clinic to more than quadruple its annual number of surgeries, and 86% of the surgeries are now provided to patients living in extreme poverty. Unite For Sight annually sponsors more than 2,000 surgeries provided by Crystal Eye Clinic for patients living in extreme poverty. Dr. Clarke and his team provide eye care to more than 22,000 patients each year who are living in extreme poverty.

Financial Resources To Eliminate Patient Barriers To Eye Care

Unite For Sight sponsors the eye care for patients identified through outreach programs and provides a grant to each partner eye clinic to support the cost of surgery, medication, and other expenses. The average cost of surgery across all of Unite For Sight's partner eye clinics is $50, with a range of $17-$100. The cost of surgery depends on a variety of factors, including the type of surgery provided (i.e. SICS or Phacoemulsification) and the country in which the surgery is provided. For example, surgery expenses are lower in India than in Ghana since all of the surgical supplies are manufactured in India. In contrast, Ghanaian clinics need to receive their surgical supplies from abroad, and the shipping and customs charges significantly increase the surgical expense. Unite For Sight pays the hard cost for all surgeries, which means that we fully sponsor all costs involved with providing a surgery to a patient. As part of the grant agreement, each eye clinic is required to provide Unite For Sight with a complete line-by-line breakdown of their surgery costs. 

Distinct from the outreach patients who have substantial barriers to care, each eye clinic also has regular private, paying patients who bring themselves to the clinic for care. These patients are generally not living in poverty, and their ability to independently seek care at the clinic indicates that they do not have significant financial, transportation, or awareness/education barriers. These patients are unaffiliated with Unite For Sight. They therefore pay the eye clinic's regular surgery charge, which is higher than the hard cost of surgery. This is important because it generates necessary profit for the clinic, enabling it to be self-sustaining without relying on Unite For Sight for their daily operations.

Unite For Sight sponsors the eye care programs well in excess of the funds raised by the volunteers. By raising funds, volunteers enable Unite For Sight to sponsor eye care and surgeries for an even greater number of patients in dire need.