AWARD YEAR
2017
CATEGORY
Body
GOALS
Good Health & Well-being
KEYWORDS
Vision, Eyeglasses, Scalable
COUNTRY
United States of America
DESIGNED BY
The USee was designed by J. Kevin White, founder of Global Vision 2020, and a former Marine who first got involved in distributing eyeglasses to the developing world as the Director of Humanitarian Assistance for the Department of Defense European Command in 2005. Through his experience in delivering eyeglasses he devised the USee in 2014 to merge the best of both delivery methods - simplicity of self-refraction distribution with the consumer acceptance of conventional eyeglasses.
WEBSITE
http://gv2020.org/?page_id=624
USee Vision Kits
Providing eyeglasses to the visually impaired at the BoP with a simple and scalable approach.
There are 2.5 billion people in the developing world who need, but have no access to eyeglasses. The major contributor to this is the distribution requirements currently necessary to deliver eyeglasses. There is approximately 1 optometrist for every 8,000 people in the developing world. In sub-Saharan Africa, that ratio is 1 to 1,000,000.
According to the World Economic Forum, poor vision costs the global economy $227 billion dollars annually. Solving this problem for $5 per patient gives an exponential return on investment. And once the access and awareness issues are addressed, self-sustainability is the next step to scalability.
The USee Kit, developed by Global Vision 2020, allows any existing network, be they teachers, community healthcare workers, drivers license testers, NGO's, etc, to become effective and efficient distributors of high quality, accurately prescribed eyeglasses in less than 1/2 a day of training. And with this access comes improved opportunities for all.