Vision Correction/ChildSight®

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The Problem

  • An estimated 153 million people around the world have uncorrected refractive errors – commonly known as near-sightedness, far-sightedness, and astigmatism.
  • In the United States, 2 million children every year have uncorrected refractive errors.
  • Those with undiagnosed or uncorrected refractive error can't achieve their full academic or vocational potential without appropriate vision correction.
  • Without eyeglasses, children with refractive error struggle in school and sometimes act up. Poor vision may even lead a child to drop out of school as a result of chronically poor academic performance.
  • Fully 90% of all people with uncorrected refractive errors live in low-and middle-income countries.

What HKI Is Doing

Helen Keller International is committed to preventing blindness and providing solutions to improve the sight of millions worldwide. HKI recognizes that eyeglasses are as essential to learning as pen, paper and books. Our innovative ChildSight® program serves at-risk children living in urban and rural poverty by offering free vision screenings and eyeglasses "to bring education into focus™". Childsight® overcomes the two biggest barriers to childhood vision care: prohibitive cost and limited access.

  • Every year in the United States, ChildSight® travels to public schools from California to New York. We bring the latest vision equipment and a selection of frames. We screen children on-site to determine their vision correction needs and, within a week, deliver new glasses to those who need them. If more extensive treatment is required, children receive an immediate referral to a nearby ophthalmologist, also free of charge.
  • Since its inception in 1994, ChildSight® has screened over 1.5 million students in the U.S. and has provided free eyeglasses to over 206,000 of the nation's most vulnerable children.
  • Teacher and student surveys have shown that a majority of children who received ChildSight® eyeglasses exhibited a significant increase in class participation, a reduction in disruptive behavior and a dramatic improvement in self-confidence.
  • ChildSight® is currently active outside the U.S. in Indonesia, and Vietnam.