Unite For Sight® is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that empowers communities worldwide to improve eye health and eliminate preventable blindness. 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. We are the world's leader in socially responsible, effective volunteering and also a leader in providing cost-effective care to the world's poorest people.

Focus Areas: Education, Health

Countries Served: Ghana
Honduras
India

Background

Date Founded:	2000
Number of Staff:	6

Description of Services:

Unite For Sight has provided eye care to 800,000 people worldwide and coordinated and funded more than 25,372 sight-restoring surgeries for patients living in extreme poverty in Africa and Asia. The Unite For Sight international programs are locally led and managed by ophthalmologists at partner eye clinics. The patients go from being completely blind to having their sight entirely restored by a 15-minute operation. 80% of all blindness is preventable, and 36 million people worldwide are needlessly blind. Unite For Sight's goal is to create a lasting impact and reduce the number of people living with unnecessary blindness.

History:

Unite For Sight was founded by Jennifer Staple-Clark in her dorm room when she was a sophomore at Yale University. Now Jennifer is 27, and she has grown the organization to be a global nonprofit organization that has provided eye care to 800,000 people in North America, Africa, and Asia. A visionary leader and social entrepreneur, Jennifer Staple-Clark was featured in Nicholas D. Kristof's "The Age of Ambition" article in The New York Times on January 27, 2008.

Accomplishments & Progress:

Since 2003, Unite For Sight has:

* Provided direct eye care services to more than 800,000 people worldwide
* Coordinated and sponsored more than 25,000 sight-restoring surgeries by local ophthalmologists at partner eye clinics.
* Engaged and trained more than 5,850 Fellows
* Convened more than 2,200 participants from 50 states and from more than 55 countries for GH/Innovate, Unite For Sight's Annual Global Health & Innovation Conference

Quality Check

Year	2007	2005	2004
Financial Information Verified
Total Revenue:	$689,599	$271,344	$5,597
Expenses:
Program Services Expenses:	$464,351 (92% of total)	$125,942 (91% of total)	$1,319 (41% of total)
Management & General Expenses:	$38,182 (8% of total)	$2,618 (2% of total)	$1,915 (59% of total)
Fundraising Expenses:	(0% of total)	$9,541 (7% of total)	$0 (0% of total)
Total Expenses:	$502,533	$138,101	$3,234

Additional Information

Additional Background Information:

At Buduburam Refugee Camp in Ghana, a dedicated group of refugee volunteers work daily to screen their local community members. Each of the volunteers participated in Unite For Sight eye education programs and received training from Dr. James Clarke, an ophthalmologist located 1 hour from the refugee camp. Every day, the refugee volunteers identify patients with potential eye disease, and the patients subsequently are examined by Dr. Clarke?s eye nurse Margaret Duah-Mensah, who visits several times per month. Those requiring treatment and surgery are brought to Dr. Clarke, and all of their eye care expenses are funded by UFS. The program at Buduburam Refugee Camp in Ghana is so successful that patients from the neighboring country of Liberia ? a country with only 1 ophthalmologist for the entire population of 3.5 million ? have been reported to travel to the refugee camp just to have their sight restored through UFS?s programs.

Officers & Board

President:
Jennifer Staple Founder, President and CEO Phone: (203) 404-4900
Development Director:
Jennifer Staple Founder, President & CEO Phone: (203) 404-4900
Volunteer Coordinator:
Emily Lin Global Impact Fellow Counselor and Alumni Coordinator Phone: (203) 404-4900
Board of Directors and Board of Advisors:
Board of Directors Jennifer Staple Eric Bertrand Sachin Jain Julia Nemiroff Yasha Modi Medical Advisory Board Dimitri Azar, MD James Clarke, MD Peter Egbert, MD Leon Herndon, MD Robert Ritch, MD Geoffrey Tabin, MD Shachar Tauber, MD Seth Wanye, MD

Contact Information

Address:	31 Brookwood Dr. Newtown , CT 06470 United States
Phone:	(203) 404-4900
Fax:
Web:	http://www.uniteforsight.org

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Organization: Unite For Sight