Imagine a day without your glasses. No glasses for reading, driving, TV, seeing your computer or, for people like me, making it out of bed without walking into a wall. 

That’s right, no glasses.  

Imagine that there’s no place to buy them, no CVS for a new pair of readers, no on-line Warby Parker ordering, no quick replacement – essentially, they don’t exist in the town/city/country where you live.  

But you still have to go to work, school, be a parent, help with homework and drive. And it’s all blurry. (Yikes!) 

That’s what it’s like for more than 2 Billion people around the world who don’t have access to clear vision. 

VisionSpring, the award-winning social enterprise, is changing that for millions of people around the world. You should know about their work. In some parts of the world, their work is as essential as your glasses. And without VisionSpring, there would not be the learning, earning and staying safe that is at the core of their programs.

Founded nearly 20 years ago, VisionSpring was the brainchild of Dr. Jordan Kassalow, an optometrist from the suburbs of NYC who was in Mexico for a summer examining a young boy’s eyes – a boy that was thought to be blind. Not only did Jordan realize in his exam that the boy wasn’t blind, but the moment he put strong glasses on the boy and gave him his sight, the boy’s smile and exuberance gave Jordan his purpose. VisionSpring was born. Yep, it’s the stuff of happy endings, epiphanies and social entrepreneurs changing the world. In fact, you can read the whole story in Jordan’s recently published book, Dare to Matter. 

Today, VisionSpring operates in more than 40 countries, bringing their innovative tool of eye screenings, training of others to screen, and eyeglasses to millions or people who live on $4 or less per day. And they don’t just give them out, rather they sell glasses at radically affordable prices that these folks can afford with partners like Warby Parker who help to cover some of the costs of the program. 

VisionSpring’s model is impactful and scalable, the kind of innovation needed to help bring clear vision to the billions who still suffer. Not only do glasses helping learning, earning at jobs and staying safe on the road, research shows that this simple innovation increases happiness, lessens headaches, increase improve learning outcomes and add dignity to people’s lives. In short, eyeglasses change lives. 

Check out VisionSpring, tell your friends about it, and the next time you buy a pair of glasses from Warby Parker, thank them for doing this work. It matters.