Unite For Sight Overview

Global Health Delivery

Unite For Sight supports eye clinics worldwide by investing human and financial resources in their social ventures to eliminate patient barriers to eye care. Unite For Sight applies best practices in eye care, public health, volunteerism, and social entrepreneurship to achieve our goal of high-quality eye care for all. The programs are locally led and managed by ophthalmologists at Unite For Sight's partner eye clinics. Unite For Sight's international eye care services with partner local eye clinics are provided year-round and are comprehensive, including examinations by local eye doctors, diagnosis and care for treatable conditions, education, and preventative care. Outreach services are brought to the people in their villages, in some cases including villages seven or more hours from the clinics. These patients are provided with regular follow-up care by our outreach teams throughout the year. To date, we have provided eye care services to more than 1.3 million people worldwide, including more than 55,000 sight-restoring surgeries.

Global Impact Corps

We scale our overall impact on global health delivery by developing and nurturing the next generation of global health leaders. Our Global Impact Fellows are immersed in effective global health programs. Their extensive pre-departure training accelerates their impact, engagement, and competency when they are abroad. They learn first-hand about best practices in public health, international development, cultural competency, and cross-cultural communication. The Unite For Sight experience develops each Fellow's passions and perspectives while enhancing their potential in a variety of career fields, including medicine, public health, social entrepreneurship, social sciences, and international development. 99 % of alumni say that participating with Unite For Sight increased their interest in global health, and 97 % report that participating in the program enhanced their interest in supporting local social entrepreneurs in developing countries.

Global Health & Innovation Conference

The Global Health & Innovation Conference annually convenes more than 2,200 participants from all 50 states and more than 55 countries. The conference participants bring experience from a wide variety of disciplines, and include students, nurses, doctors, policy-makers, nonprofit directors and volunteers, public health professionals, health educators, community health workers, researchers, social scientists, social workers, social entrepreneurs, philanthropists, teachers, lawyers, and business executives. The goal of the conference is to exchange ideas and best practices across disciplines in order to improve public health and international development. Participants are encouraged to attend presentations in fields that may be outside of their existing expertise so that they can learn about successful strategies in other fields that may be applicable to their own work.

Global Health University

Unite For Sight's Global Health University is designed to develop and nurture the next generation of global health leaders. Global Health University helps to effect widespread innovative change in global health through comprehensive training workshops and idea incubators, a Global Health Certificate Program, fellowship and internship opportunities in the U.S. and abroad, and online courses.

Health Chapters

Unite For Sight's chapter volunteers are trained to reduce barriers to care by serving as advocates for community members. Chapter volunteers train teachers to identify visual issues among their students and they also inform teachers about how to coordinate free eye care for uninsured students. In addition, chapter volunteers train the staff at community centers (e.g. soup kitchens, homeless shelters, free clinics) about the resources available for their clients to receive free eye care through professional organizations such as the American Academy of Ophthalmology (EyeCare America) and American Optometric Association (VisionUSA). Each chapter works to eliminate blindness in its community by enabling thousands each year to access free eye care by eye care professionals.