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Project 20/20
Volunteers Helping People See Better Around the World
 
Project 20/20 is a human service program that protects and improves the sight of disadvantaged persons of all faiths in underdeveloped areas of the world where medical care for the poor is very limited. The program provides eyeglasses to medical teams that provide the poor with professional eye care free of charge. This non-profit all-volunteer program is sponsored by the United Methodist Church as a response to people in need regardless of their faith. Project 20/20 is possible because of volunteers and donations from many church denominations, community civic clubs, humanitarian organizations, medical offices, and the Southern College of Optometry.
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ABOUT PROJECT 20/20

The mission of Project 20/20 is to prevent blindness and improve vision among the indigent and working poor in underdeveloped areas of the world. This is accomplished by providing sunglasses, eyeglasses, and other support to volunteer medical teams that contribute professional service in those areas.

     
  • Recycled sunglasses prevent blindness by eye diseases caused by intense sunlight, wind, or dust in tropical and high altitude countries.


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  • Recycled eyeglasses improve vision when dispensed by licensed professionals free to children and adults in developing countries.


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  • Financial and technical assistance enable optometry students and medical teams to provide humanitarian service in areas desperate for medical assistance.


In many regions of the world, visiting medical teams are the principal and sometimes only source of medical care for the poor. Unfortunately, most medical teams can not offer vision care services because of the difficulty of obtaining an adequate supply of appropriate eyeglasses.

Crowd of villagers seek eye exams from visiting medical team
Crowd of villagers seek eye
exams from visiting medical team
Project 20/20 was created in 1993 as all volunteer, non-profit human service program to meet medical team needs for glasses. Project 20/20's network of volunteers collect and screen large quantities of eyeglasses for the medical teams. Project 20/20 prepares and ships the materials to the medical teams at no cost to the teams. This increases the number of international medical teams that can provide vision care to disadvantaged populations. Consequently, more teams are able to provide vision care service to more people in need.

Additionally, Project 20/20 helps increase the number of eye care professionals who could join medical teams. The project dedicates approximately half of its funds each year to sending advanced optometry students on medical teams. The students gain first-hand knowledge about extreme human needs and develop lifetime commitments to providing humanitarian aid.

The unique value of Project 20/20 is that it provides any individual, group, or church with a simple and direct means of improving lives around the world. A donation of just one pair of old glasses or only $5.00 can prevent blindness for one person who would otherwise lose sight. Virtually all people are willing to help others in need. Project 20/20 provides an easy means for doing that.

History

In 1990, a United Methodist Volunteers in Mission medical and construction team served in the rural mountains of Jamaica several years after Hurricane Gilbert damaged homes, schools, churches, and clinics. While one part of the team was repairing churches and school buildings, another part was building a medical clinic and providing eye exams and eyeglasses. The vision care team had been given 1,000 eyeglasses by two Memphis optometrists who spent six months collecting glasses and determining their prescriptions. Unfortunately, after fewer than 200 persons received the eyeglasses they needed, the team found that the prescriptions for the remaining 800 glasses did not match what the other 600 people standing in line needed.

For many months afterward, team volunteers questioned what had gone wrong. Through discussions with the regional office of the Lions Club and the faculty at the Southern College of Optometry, it was learned that vision care teams not only required large quantities of eyeglasses but also prescriptions screened specifically for the countries where they would be dispensed.

Because collecting and screening large numbers of eyeglasses required extensive volunteer time and expertise, few medical personnel and offices could obtain and process the required volume of glasses. Consequently, limited resources prevented many professionals from contributing their service to those in need.

The solution? Project 20/20 was created to establish a regional eyeglass donation and processing center staffed by lay volunteers (non-optometrists). The project was organized in 1992 as a human service mission program by the Memphis Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. All 500 churches in the west Tennessee and west Kentucky area sponsored and owned the program. This network of churches and congregations provided the volunteers and donations to establish the project.

The first shipment of approximately 600 eyeglasses was provided in 1993 to the Southern College of Optometry (SCO) medical team that served in Costa Rica and Belize. SCO students and faculty helped Project 20/20 purchase and set up sophisticated equipment for reading eyeglass prescriptions. Later, a software developer and an electrical engineer designed computer programs to automate the screening of prescriptions to determine whether glasses could be used in other countries. Because of this process, lay persons of ages 10 through their 80s are able to screen eyeglass prescriptions accurately with the simple press of a button. As a result, tens of thousands of carefully screened eyeglasses have been provided to over one hundred medical teams since 1993.

Project 20/20 Today

Project 20/20 is a 'mission of vision' sponsored by the United Methodist Church to help persons of all faiths gain better eyesight. To qualify for Project 20/20 support, a medical team must include a licensed vision care professional and provide service for free to the poor in without any discrimination in underdeveloped areas of the world. The team must serve anyone in need in the target community.

Each year, Project 20/20 provides support to 10-15 medical teams that provide free service to the indigent on several continents (see Medical Teams and Results). Teams range in size from one optometrist to large groups of professionals in medical, dental, and vision care fields. A typical team will conduct 400-500 eye exams in one week of service. In recent years, Project 20/20 has been able to provide enough eyeglasses to help over 2,000 people see getter annually. This has been possible only because caring individuals, alone or in groups, have donated glasses, time, and funds to Project 20/20.

As an all volunteer and absolutely non-profit organization, Project 20/20 acts as a good steward of all the resources it receives. Wonderful facilities for the processing lab are provided by Emmanuel United Methodist Church in Memphis, Tennessee. Much-needed storage space is provided by St. Matthews United Methodist Church in Memphis. Eyeglasses and storage are provided and screened by Crosslink International at First Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee. Eyeglasses and sunglasses are donated by individuals, churches, Lions Clubs, medical offices, and other groups principally in the Mid-South region but also across the United States.

Funds are contributed by individuals, churches, and clubs. Directly or indirectly, all funds received are used to provide vision care to the needy in developing countries. As an all-volunteer program, no funds are spent on salaries. Now that all equipment has been purchased, operating and supply costs are low approximately $2,500 per year. All other funds received, approximately $2,500 per year, are used to support optometry students serving on medical teams.

Eyeglasses Recycling Center

The Project 20/20 Eyeglasses Recycling Center is housed in space donated by Emmanuel United Methodist Church, 2404 Kirby Road, Memphis, Tennessee 38119 (telephone 901-754-6548). Churches, individuals, and other groups donate space for storage and supplies.

Lay volunteers (non-medical personnel) operate the recycling center. The entire screening process has been organized into six separate steps or stations. As volunteers process glasses from Station 1 through Station 6, the glasses are unpacked, checked for physical problems, separated into different categories, cleaned, reviewed for prescriptions, and stored for medical team use. Tasks at each station are straight-forward to perform. Volunteers need to learn only the one step they prefer. Working as a team, the glasses are screened and packaged to support medical teams all over the world. The most complex step (reading prescriptions) is so automated that pressing a single button conducts a full analysis of lens quality.

Each year, volunteers range in age from ten to over eighty years old. Anyone with good vision and a desire to help can work successfully in the lab. The only requirement is that volunteers should work carefully at their respective stations. Most volunteers work two to four hours per week; some volunteers work only occasionally.

At times, incoming volunteer groups will donate an hour or a day for special activities, such as sorting, cleaning, or bagging sunglasses. Project 20/20 offers a great opportunity for groups and classes to perform valuable short term service projects (and have fun as well).

Collaboration with Lions Clubs

Project 20/20 strongly supports the mission and service of Lions Clubs, an organization that provides critical resources and personnel to improve vision around the world. Several local Lions Clubs donate the glasses they collect to Project 20/20. When Project 20/20 has extra glasses, it sends them to the Lions Club processing center.

Project 20/20 eyeglasses and funds support international eye care projects sponsored by the Lions Club, notably the student vision care team from the Southern College of Optometry. Project 20/20 recommends in its publications that donors should contribute glasses to Lions Clubs if they prefer. We are all committed to the same purpose of improving the vision of those in need. For more information about the Lions Club, please go to their website, http://www.lionsclubs.org, and click on "English" for detailed information about club locations and programs.

Collaboration with Partners

Project 20/20 works closely with several organizations in addition to Lions Clubs. After partnering with Project 20/20, the World Cataract Foundation was able to expand its service from cataract surgeries only to include the dispensing of thousands of eyeglasses to citizens of Ometepec, Mexico. Southern Eye Associates has been able to expand its new vision care clinic in Sierra Leone, Africa. Crosslink International has been able to establish an eyeglasses donation and processing center in Memphis, Tennessee. Through such collaboration, organizations are able to help more people.

Support to Medical Teams

Qualified medical teams receive diverse support from Project 20/20. This includes trip planning assistance, contacts with teams previously serving in the destination country, eyeglasses, and sunglasses. All glasses are carefully screened and packaged for successful dispensing in the field (see Medical Teams and Results).

Support to Optometry Students

Project 20/20 also seeks to expand the number of optometrists who are willing to contribute professional time in humanitarian service. Each year, typically half of all financial donations to Project 20/20 are used to sponsor advanced optometry students on medical teams. Currently, Project 20/20 provides travel expense scholarships to Student Volunteer Optometrists in Service to Humanity (SVOSH) and the interdenominational Fellowship of Christian Optometrists (FCO) at the Southern College of Optometry in Memphis, Tennessee.

Optometry student conducting eye exam
Working with faculty supervisors, each student usually examines and helps 100-150 persons each trip. The experience strengthens student skills and generates a lifetime of commitment to serving those in need. On the average, every $5.00 donated toward supporting optometry students will cover the cost of providing a professional eye exam and a pair of eyeglasses to one person. The funds spent on students are considered a significant investment in mankind.


Support from Volunteers

Volunteers make Project 20/20 services possible by donating their time, energy, and creativity. Their willingness to help others simply changes lives. With the organizational base provided by the United Methodist Church, Project 20/20 is able to collect and process glasses through the effort of volunteers from United Methodist and other churches, the community, Lions Clubs, and many partner organizations. Each person who completes just one step of the Project 20/20 process makes it possible for someone to see better.

Donors
Contribute eyeglasses, sunglasses, and funds to Project 20/20
Volunteers
Collect the donations and send them to Project 20/20
Volunteers
Screen glasses in the Eyeglasses Recycling Center
Volunteers
Pack glasses for medical teams
Volunteers
Organize medical missions and service trips
Organizations
Support service trips and provide medical supplies
Medical Staff
Volunteer to travel to distant lands at their own expense
Local Hosts
Provide housing, meals, transportation, and translations

The entire process is possible and successful because individual persons choose to help others in one way or another. Every act of sharing is an act of caring for one's neighbors across the world. Some people can contribute material goods or money, while others can contribute their time or expertise. Each year, over two thousand children and adults can see better because someone decides to help.

Project 20/20 Results

Since Project 20/20 began operating in 1993, volunteers have helped many persons across the world. These results are effective January 1993-December 2007.

     
  • Project 20/20 helped over 100 teams from 15 states to deliver free vision care to over 27,000 children and adults in 23 countries on four continents.


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  • Project 20/20 supported the medical team travel costs for over 50 advanced optometry students who helped over 6,000 persons see better.


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  • Project 20/20 provided over 28,000 sunglasses to prevent eye diseases and blindness in tropical and high altitude countries.


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