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Optometry Giving Sight funds two VOSH projects
Optometry Giving Sight provided funding for vision care projects in Central and South America.
According to an Optometry Giving Sight press release, the organization funded the purchase of equipment for an optical laboratory at the newly established School of Optometry at the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua in Managua. Forty students are enrolled in the first year of the program, which aims to educate, train and graduate local optometrists to provide affordable and accessible vision care for the country.
“The school’s curriculum was modeled after the La Salle program in Bogota, Colombia, and is regarded as being the closest to North American educational and clinical standards,” Larry Hookway, OD, immediate past president of VOSH, said in the press release.
He added that students are required to provide services to poor and disadvantaged people during the last 12 to 18 months of the curriculum.
Optometry Giving Sight also funded the VOSH International Technology Transfer Program, which supports clinical instruction by providing new and used optometric equipment to schools and colleges of optometry in Central and South America. According to the press release, it is anticipated that funds provided for this program will benefit schools in Chile and Argentina.
Optometry Giving Sight funds sustainable eye care services for people who are blind or vision impaired due to uncorrected refractive error. The charity works in partnership with VOSH International in the U.S. and has provided funds to the group’s sustainable vision care projects in Mexico, Nicaragua, Afghanistan and Peru.
To learn more about Optometry Giving Sight, visit www.givingsight.org, call (888) OGS-GIVE or email usa@givingsight.org.
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