The following story was written by Khanindra Kalita, VisionSpring Sales Manager in India.

Ms. Sumana was born in pre-independence India in the erstwhile Nizam’s estate (Hyderabad), Daughter of Dr. Burgula Rama Krishna Rao, statesman and the first Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh; Ms. Sumana taught Social Science at the Atomic Energy Central School, Hyderabad for 30 years. Retired in 1998, Ms. Sumana moved to her native village and since then has been tirelessly helping poor communities of her village lead better lives.

A VisionSpring Champion, Ms. Sumana helped VisionSpring’s Vision Entrepreneurs’ conduct eye camps in her village on many occasions. According to Ms. Sumana, an understanding of human nature and society is essential for organic development and the well being of society. A firm believer of ‘Work is Worship’ and ‘Service to Humanity is Service to God’, she believes in the concept of a pluralistic society with equal emphasis to human values.

Dr. Alok Agarwal, a leading Nephrologist based out of USA and Ms. Sumana’s former student says that his teacher has been his greatest inspiration and takes pride in being able to provide financial assistance to a Public School in Ms. Sumana’s native village.

Inspired by learning about VisionSpring’s work in Burgula village during his recent visit to her, Dr. Agarwal requested VisionSpring Vision Entrepreneurs to conduct an eye camp in August, 2010 to coincide with the opening ceremony of an auditorium donated by him for the for the local Self Help Group (SHG). Ms. Sumana made door-to-door visits and encouraged the villagers, especially women, to participate in the camp.

VisionSpring Vision Entrepreneurs’ screened 190 women and men and sold 106 eye glasses. During the camp, Dr. Agarwal actively participated and provided part financial support for purchase of eye glasses to the needy people.

Thanks to the support of Ms. Sumana, VisionSpring conducted 4 eye camps in Burgula village in last two years, screened 560 people, sold 230 eye glasses and helped 60 cataract patients get operated at the Lions Eye Hospital in Mahabubnagar city.

A person like Ms. Sumana in every village can do wonders by taking VisionSpring’s message to her neighbors and helping them achieve their goals. Apart from being encouraging and inspiring, the efforts of individuals like Ms. Sumana will help VisionSpring create a Factorial Effect* in impacting the lives of many.

To read more stories like this, visit our Stories from the Field page or Donate now to help VisionSpring to reach more villages like Ms. Sumana’s.

*In mathematics, the Factorial of a positive integer n, denoted by n! is the product of all positive integers less than or equal to n. For example, 5! = 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1

Norris and VisionSpring customers in India

VisionSpring sent Leah Norris, undergraduate student at Bard College, to India to gather stories and insights from our customers, Vision Entrepreneurs and staff. In the following post, Norris reflects on hospitality, dignity and her changing perspective in India.

Though I had traveled before, I had never been traveling with a purpose like I was when VisionSpring sent me off to Hyderabad, India.  I sat on tiny planes, crowded overnight trains, cars battered by the chaotic and threatening traffic, buses that broke down amongst empty fields, and fragile rickshaws to get from village to village, interviewing customers and employees of the company.  One man who was previously making a dangerously low income proudly showed me the house that he had built for his family since he began working as a Vision Entrepreneur. It was the single solid cement house in the area, surrounded by semi-temporary shacks that demonstrated the incredible contrast between his former life and the new one he had been given the opportunity to make. Another man, a weaver whose efficiency was doubled by the pair of glasses that VisonSpring made available to him, spent a full day’s wages buying my coworkers and me sodas in overflowing appreciation and hospitality. This kind of gratitude was extraordinarily hard for me to accept – I wanted nothing more than to run back and give him a thousand sodas in return- but the feeling of independence that he could now afford and express by welcoming us into his home was something he had fought for.

Throughout, I was inspired by the way that motivated individuals in challenging circumstances prioritize. The man with the cement house focused on making his family secure and comfortable, and feeling like he had accomplished something significant. The man with the sodas focused on his ability to interact with warm reciprocity, something that should be a human right, should we choose to exercise it. I met a father who still had not bought himself a cot to sleep on with his VisonSpring income for the sake of sending his son to the best possible school. What these people did when given the possibility for financial empowerment was a striking testament to this impressionable undergrad, teetering on the brink of cynicism. I saw a lot of terrible, frustrating things in India, but I also saw startlingly bright colors, a textured and poignant culture, and the reason that it is vital to give people a chance to create something for themselves. Even a simple pair of eyeglasses can be the spark that ignites the momentum.

For people to notice, you have to stand out. Like all salespeople, our Vision Entrepreneurs know this well – and it’s a challenge they eagerly undertake every time they organize a vision campaign. But how to get the word out to the community about their exciting, valuable product? VEs have dreamed up some pretty innovative solutions; some have even hired radio broadcasters, acting troupes, or drummers to announce upcoming campaigns. But in Santa Ana, where VisionSpring’s pilot is off to a tremendous start, VEs are taking advantage of another established, much more culturally-relevant marketing technique.

In peri-urban areas of Latin America, it is common practice for companies large and small to advertise by recording musically-backed, catchy commercials. A hired driver cruises key parts of the city over the course of a day, as the recording booms from the car’s sound system. One VE setting up a campaign at a church in Santa Ana created a similar recording to advertise his efforts.

Listen to the VE’s announcement:

VisionSpring El Salvador from elizabeth kaplan on Vimeo.

VisionSpring India partner, Villgro Fellow 2010, Jeanne Chen argued in a recent blog post that a gender gap exists in the adoption of technologies at the base of they pyramid. She suggested that according to her observations, VisionSpring’s customers are skewed in favor of men because women lack disposable income and find glasses aesthetically unappealing.

VisionSpring is grateful to our important partner, Villgro for working on our behalf and ensuring women and men adopt our products equally. It is through such partnerships that we continue to improve our operating model and spread our impact. We welcome the questions like those raised by Jeanne Chen so that we can continue to innovate both our products and services to better serve consumers at the Base of the Pyramid.

In her post, Chen asserts that social enterprises need to be conscientious of the gender gap in innovation adoption and evaluate the impact of their interventions to overcome this gap – we agree. VisionSpring trains our Vision Entrepreneurs to conduct screenings and provide eye care solutions to all genders. According to our sales records in India last year, VisionSpring customers were roughly 52% male and 48% female – only slightly in favor of men. Despite this statistic, Chen raises two critical issues for VisionSpring to consider.

First, Chen argues that women are less likely to wear glasses because they consider eyeglasses aesthetically unappealing. To address this, she recommends including women in the sourcing of glasses. As a market-driven organization, VisionSpring recognizes the importance of understanding the needs and desires of all intended users of our products, including women. We have learned that by listening to the consumer we have a higher adoption and usage rate of the product. For this reason, VisionSpring utilizes our Visions Entrepreneurs to gather feedback regarding frame styles and selection and the sales of our products reinforce what works for our customers. VisionSpring local staff collect this information and use it to make sourcing decisions. For example, VisionSpring created protector glasses, which are sunglasses with clear, UV protected lens, specifically to address the cultural preferences of some women to avoid shading their eyes. Though we are not perfect, like other consumer businesses, VisionSpring does its best to accommodate the widely varied tastes of our customers.

Second, Chen notes that women are less likely to have disposable income and economic means to purchase glasses. As she recommends, our Vision Entrepreneurs emphasize to customers the importance of preserving vision for economic productivity. Part of the challenge of selling this product is demonstrating to customers that purchasing reading glasses is an important investment for economic wellbeing of the family unit. One of our primary goals is to increase awareness about vision loss in the developing world and a large part of our outreach is done through vision campaigns in which our Vision Entrepreneurs not only screen vision loss, but also educate the general population about how restoring their vision can restore their productivity.

One customer in rural India, Shadna had been supporting her family for years after her husband died. As her vision deteriorated, she was unable to continue her work as a seamstress and had to labor in the fields earning too little to support her family. She tells VisionSpring, “I heard that a Vision Entrepreneur would be in my town, and even though I did not have money to spare, I went because the vision screening was free. I saw that the glasses they had were good quality, and I decided that they were worth the cost. I am back to my sewing now and making the same money as before. I am happy that I once again have a way to support my children.”

Stories like Shadna’s reinforce the power of awareness of our services and of vision care to women and men in the community. We thank Jeanne Chen and Villgro for holding us accountable to ensuring women are able to adopt the important technologies they need. We look forward to strengthening our collaboration on behalf of all consumers at the Base of the Pyramid.

New Frame Display Case

In June 2010, Partner Manager Caroline Misan visited the VisionSpring office in Santa Ana to assist Country Director Heidy Serpas to achieve a more polished Vision Entrepreneur and give our customers a better experience. Due to the success of programs VisionSpring is piloting in El Salvador, the Santa Ana office has enjoyed much more business – and given Heidy the opportunity to take the next step in the development of the program by building out the professionalism of the office and Vision Entrepreneurs. These improvements set the stage for continued growth of the operations and eventual replication in other cities in El Salvador and across Latin America.

Heidy and Caroline installed a display case for the frames (shown above) so customers are now able to clearly see all of the attractive options. The office was painted and a custom sign with VisionSpring’s logo was erected on the street to reassure customers of VisionSpring’s legitimacy and serve as a visual presence in the neighborhood. Then came the challenge: answering the Vision Entrepreneur’s call for VisionSpring to provide them more with professional support while balancing the organizational need to continue to recover costs from the location.

The team developed a plan to revise operations of the office to support the most committed Vision Entrepreneurs and incentivize the part-timers to do their part in making the program more successful. Now, the Vision Entrepreneurs will be asked to increase the number of campaigns held and meet a small minimum sales goal; if they meet these targets, they will earn an extra $50 per month. Caroline and the El Salvador team developed marketing materials and business cards for the Vision Entrepreneurs to allow the VEs more time for face-to-face outreach. Heidy also hired two loyal and talented Vision Entrepreneurs to support her in daily operations.

The opportunity to invest in the consumer experience for our Santa Ana customers signifies the deepening of our presence in El Salvador. These improvements respond to the overwhelming response from the communities as well as the commitment of VisionSpring staff and the Vision Entrepreneurs.

See photos of the Santa Ana office renovations by visiting our Facebook page!

In this short video, a VisionSpring customer in Nicaragua tells the inspiring story of how his friend became a Vision Entrepreneur and helped save his livelihood.

Dionicio Torrez-Hernandez, father of seven, was forced to use a handheld magnifying glass to inspect his shrimp harvest due to his blurry up-close vision. Then Lisseth, a young woman he knew since childhood, sold him a pair of low cost reading glasses that immediately doubled his productivity. Thanks to VisionSpring’s innovative model for providing affordable eye care, Dionicio and Lisseth are both able to support their children and save for the future of their families.

We would like to extend a special thanks to Willy Foote, President and Founder of Root Capital, for the production and composition of original music for this video. Join us in watching the inspiring story of Dionicio and Lisseth!

VisionSpring: Dionicio & Lisseth’s Story from elizabeth kaplan on Vimeo.

Learn more about Dionicio and Lisseth and read other inspiring Stories from the Field.

VisionSpring 3.0 incorporates an urban optical shop that sells affordable distance glasses into its existing mode as a “hub” for VisionSpring’s “spokes “, i.e. our market-creating Vision Entrepreneurs working in rural regions. Latin-America Partner Manager, Caroline Misan, recently returned from the pilot of this new model and brought two short videos shot during one of the successful Vision Campaigns in Sant Ana.

Country Director, Heidy Serpas (seen in the videos) works with customers to select their frames. With a great understanding of what styles are popular in the region, Heidy’s expertise has resulted in highly positive response to our frame selection. During the first four campaigns, VisionSpring sold more than 140 pairs of prescription lenses.

Watch as customers choose among the selection of frames in consultation with Heidy and their families:

VisionSpring is lucky to have four MBA students from the Ross School of Business MAP program assessing the pilot of our new business model in El Salvador. The MBAs arrived in Santa Ana, El Salvador last week. During their time with us, VisionSpring will post the impressions of our four students on Business in a Bag. In the first post, Stephanie Osborn reports on the patience Vision Entrepreneurs exhibit cultivating customers in regions where eye care has never before been accessible.

We have had the opportunity to observe several campaigns, the community gatherings where the Vision Entrepreneurs perform eye exams and sell reading glasses. Whether there are eight people from the community present or fifty, I have been struck by the level of individual attention that the VEs give each customer. People come from all over the area surrounding Santa Ana, seeking not only an eye exam but some sort of explanation about what exactly is happening in their eyes. They want to know why their vision is cansada, or tired, and why they need this specific type of glasses. People come looking for answers.

The VEs never seem to lose their patience or rush a customer. They make sure that each person gets his or her questions answered. During one campaign, a VE named Noel explained to an elderly woman why she needed to take better care of her eyes so that she could continue to live a full life and not go blind. The woman began to cry. Noel immediately began to comfort her, sitting down on the bench beside her. He kept speaking with us until she calmed down and understood that he was trying to help her. I was impressed with how he listened to the elderly woman and answered her questions; this sort of attention and care is very different from the clinical and fast-paced medical experience in the United States.

This is not to say, however, that the eye exams performed at the campaigns are any less thorough than those in the U.S. People leave the VisionSpring campaigns with glasses or a referral to an optometrist in the Santa Ana office. The customers seem very happy with their new frames and renewed vision. I continually notice that the VEs do not only give out glasses, but answers as well; the personal attention given to each customer is incredibly important because it makes the VEs part of the communities that they serve. There are perhaps more answers to be found in this process than simply those that the VEs offer their patients.

-Stephanie Osborn

Caroline Misan recently returned from her first trip to the field as VisionSpring’s Partner Manager for Latin America. Caroline brings to VisionSpring a valuable fresh set of eyes along with her experience growing businesses in the developing world. I sat down with her to learn more about what’s new with VisionSpring in Latin America and hear her newly garnered insights into the challenges and opportunities in the region moving forward.

Check out Caroline’s VisionSpring Central America photo here!

Welcome back to New York Caroline!

Thanks!

So what was your goal for your first time in the field?

My goal for this trip was to gain a deeper understanding of how VisionSpring works and establish solid relationships with our local teams. Since I will be working mainly in Latin America, it was important that I go to El Salvador to see our direct channel, where VisionSpring innovates its business model and strategies. I was also excited to visit our partner in Nicaragua, Cause for Hope, because VisionSpring’s partner channel is the key to growing our micro-franchise model throughout the region.

What was the biggest takeaway from your trip about VisionSpring’s Central America programs?

That we have a phenomenal resource in Heidy Serpas, the VisionSpring El Salvador Country Director. She is honestly a superstar. Heidy understands every aspect of our business – how to recruit and train VEs, how to connect with the customer base, and the role of the field staff in generating ideas for the improvement of our product and service offering. Beyond that, she understands the importance of building up a team of Vision Entrepreneurs as stakeholders. She manages a core group of 13 VEs, and has infected them with her dedication to the program. She invests a lot of time, and is always finding ways to build their enthusiasm and revenue-generation.

I’d say that my ten days in El Salvador convinced me that local resources are key to the success of any organization that wants to create real impact on the ground. The VisionSpring team really values her, and we’re looking forward to working with her to train and empower other managers in the region.

What is the main challenge you identify for VisionSpring in the region over the coming year?

A main challenge is establishing good channels of communication to provide the local managers the support they need to create significant, scalable impact. As I just hinted at, local managers are critical to the success of the VisionSpring model because they are the ones running the program in real time. We need to make sure we’re assisting them as much as possible. This will mean things like checking to make sure they have the tools they need to deal with managing inventory, or asking if they would like help interacting with institutions like banks, which they can be uncomfortable doing. The right lines of communication will unlock their potential and really help the region flourish.

Beyond this greater challenge of communication, what are some next steps you want to take as Partner Manager to help the programs succeed?

I have a bunch of goals. I want to improve our sales and franchise partner materials to ensure quality control. For example, I’d love to see us supplying our VEs with functional, one-pager VisionSpring “cheat sheets.” This will ensure that our local partners have more clear guidelines and materials to support their VEs.

I also want to work on firming up our incentive structure to make sure managers have a way to keep VEs interested and selling. Oh, and create material to drive regular “refresher” courses for managers on eye care and VE recruitment and training.

Any exciting developments in the Latin American innovations realm?

Yes, there are some very exciting new developments on the ground. While I was in El Salvador, the team was getting ready to pilot a new service: the VisionSpring full-service optical shop. Up to this point, VisionSpring has been solely focused on providing reading glasses, so all patients that needed eye care beyond reading glasses had to be referred to eye doctors or clinics. Now we’re going to test hosting an optometrist in our office and at our major campaigns so that we can provide glasses to patients with more advanced vision problems. Patients will continue to be screened by our VEs first, but those that do not have presbyopia will be referred to our optometrist so they can purchase affordable prescription glasses.

Our VEs are really happy about the optical shop idea because it will let them serve customers, both young and old, that they were never able to cater to before. The pilot launch will take place at a large church with over 9,000 congregants next Sunday. I’m very excited to hear how it goes.

What are you most looking forward to achieving in the region with VisionSpring?

Creating self-sustaining programs and growing – but carefully, with a purpose. We need to constantly ask ourselves – is this expansion going to create value for VisionSpring, our VEs, and our customers in the long run? I look forward to finding the answer to this question in Latin America and integrating it as part of VisionSpring’s global strategy.

Can you share one of your highlights from the trip?

One day in El Salvador I was accompanying a Vision Entrepreneur, Nelson, who was meeting with local leaders in a few villages. We stopped by a church that Nelson had never visited before and spoke with the pastor, who told us he had recently purchased a $90 pair of sunglasses to provide relief for his extremely light-sensitive eyes. Nelson asked him how he would feel if he could have the same protection with VisionSpring glasses for $5.The pastor immediately saw the value of the program and scheduled a vision campaign in his church for the end of the month.

Marta Perez is one of VisionSpring’s inspiring Vision Entrepreneurs. Born into an impovrished family with fourteen children, Marta experienced more than her share of hardships early in life. Resolved not to feel sorry for herself, Marta has was determined to fight for her dreams, and for the dreams of her community.
Marta joined VisionSpring in El Salvador as one of our very first Vision Entrepreneurs in 2002. According to Marta, the job appealed to her because she could help low-income people while making a living. When asked why she has stayed with VisionSpring for so long, Marta enthusiastically responds “ I make money selling eyeglasses, but most of all, I earn many people’s respect. Customers stop me in the street to tell me how wonderful it feels to see again, and that makes me happy.”

For Marta, VisionSpring has become a family enterprise. When her husband saw how successful and respected Marta had become, he decided to become a Vision Entrepreneur as well. With their combined savings, they have been able to send their oldest son to university, where he is now studying optometry. Impressed by the difference that his mother has made in people’s lives, his dream is to one day provide affordable eye care to low-income communities himself. Marta’s fourteen year-old daughter also looks up to her mother as a role model and hopes to work in vision care when she grows up.
On a recent visit to El Salvador, we sat down with Marta, who told us of one particular experience that stuck out in her mind. “One day, all six of my children begged to come with me to a vision camp. They just sat there watching me for hours while I screened customers and sold glasses!” she recalls, laughing. Then, more seriously, she adds, “It feels good for me to have their support and admiration.”

At the end of the interview, Marta made a comment that encapsulates the spirit of VisionSpring, our partners, and our Vision Entrepreneurs around the world: “I have so many dreams, and these dreams are so important to me that I have no choice but to keep fighting for them.”