Vision Action

Last updated

Vision Action
Founded1985
TypeUK registered charity
Focus Optometry
Location
Area served
Africa
Product Optometry
MethodDirect delivery
Key people
Bryony Ellis, founder
Honorary VP: Fiona Bruce
Honorary VP: Sir Trevor MacDonald
Revenue
£500k - £1M
Employees
Full time: 6
Part time: 3
Volunteers
300
Website www.vao.org.uk

Vision Action (formerly Vision Aid Overseas - VAO) is a registered charity [1] in the United Kingdom, which provides optical aid and services to developing countries in Africa.

Contents

History

In 1985, a group of British optometrists and dispensing opticians each took two weeks out of their businesses to establish clinics in Tanzania, where they tested the eyes of local people and dispensed second-hand spectacles collected in UK. After the project gained publicity via the media and resultant public support, they formalised their efforts by registering the charity Vision Aid Overseas (VAO) in 1987. [2]

Founded on the delivery of direct service to patient, since registering as a charity, VAO has operated direct service clinics in 23 countries and tested the eyes of over 600,000 patients, helping over 350,000 people to see with a pair of spectacles. [2]

In the 1997 New Years Honours list, founder Brian Ellis was awarded the MBE.

From 2010 to 2020, VAO organized a recycling scheme collecting used glasses from the public in the UK for sorting and recycling. The program was stopped when its operating costs became too burdening for the non-profit. [3]

In January 2022, VAO announced its merger with Vision for a Nation Foundation. [4] In November 2022, Vision Aid Overseas became Vision Action. [5] [6]

Operations

Vision Action today focuses it operations around three core services: [7]

VAO presently runs sustainable projects in five target countries: Ethiopia, Malawi, Sierra Leone, Uganda, and Zambia. [2]

Support

VAO Honorary Vice Presidents include competing newsreaders Fiona Bruce of the BBC, and Sir Trevor MacDonald of ITV News. In February 2005 Bruce did the voice over for VAO's Lifeline Appeal, and in 2007 launched VAO's Annual Review.

The charity has formalised its relationship with the UK eye care industry, and is often the chosen charity supported by many dispensing opticians, and professionals via the Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers, who collect old spectacles from customers for recycling via VAO. [8] [9] [10]

The charity gained publicity in 2005 after the death of Countdown game show host Richard Whiteley. After his death, his longtime partner Kathryn Apanowicz donated three pairs of Whiteley's spectacles to VAO, who sent them with a team of optical professionals to Ethiopia, where they were fitted to three locals with the same prescription. The BBC followed this story on their Inside Out programme, which was broadcast on 19 September 2007.

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References

  1. ↑ "Vision Action, registered charity no. 1081695". Charity Commission for England and Wales.
  2. 1 2 3 "Vision Aid Overseas". Stafffinders. Retrieved 20 September 2009.
  3. ↑ "The end of Vision Aid Overseas' glasses recycling scheme". www.ioassn.org. 21 September 2020. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
  4. ↑ "Vision for a Nation to merge with Vision Aid Overseas". The International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness. 5 January 2022. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
  5. ↑ Young, Kimberley (30 November 2022). "Vision Aid Overseas becomes Vision Action". www.aop.org.uk. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
  6. ↑ "Vision Aid Overseas is evolving into Vision Action". The International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness. 14 December 2022. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
  7. ↑ "Vision Aid Overseas". SmartChange. Retrieved 20 September 2009.
  8. ↑ "Vision Aid Overseas". Dollond & Aitchison. Retrieved 20 September 2009.
  9. ↑ "Supporting Vision Aid Overseas". SelectSpecs. Retrieved 20 September 2009.
  10. ↑ "Vision Aid Overseas and Specsavers". Facebook . Retrieved 20 September 2009.
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