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 is lucky to have four MBA students from the Ross School of Business MAP program assessing the pilot of our new business model in Santa Ana, El Salvador. In the second MAP Team Report, Janelle Hailey reports on her inspirational experience getting to know VisionSpring’s customers.

Warmth. Courage. Perseverance. This is what I feel all around me in Santa Ana. I have been in Santa Ana a little over two weeks now, and I remain continuously awed by the people of this country who make up VisionSprings’ customer base.

I met a young man named Alex. He told me that he can see the details that make up the beauty of a flower in his hand, but can’t see read words from more than a few feet away. Alex wants his vision to improve, but as a professional soccer player his obstacle is finding the time to travel to where there are affordable glasses during the season, to or the money to take care of his vision when he is not working.

I met a woman named Maria who is a housewife or “Ama de Casa.” She takes great pride in taking care of her children, but has trouble helping her kids with their homework. Maria’s eyes sometimes water while reading and today she told me that they were incredibly red in the morning. She would get an exam if there were more affordable options for her.

These two stories are similar to many of those shared with me by the Santa Ana community. Hearing their concerns, their hopes, and their courage makes me incredibly excited and humbled to contribute to VisionSpring mission with the launch of its new business model.

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:

SEEING THE CHALLENGE

VisionSpring’s microfranchise model for selling reading glasses has proven to be uniquely successful at delivering a basic consumer product for increased self-reliance to end-of-the-road communities, generating awareness for eye care, and growing VisionSpring’s brand. Over the last few years, however, VisionSpring has struggled with a host of challenges that ultimately make it difficult to reach cost-recovery with this model.

1) With a sole focus on reading glasses, it is difficult for Vision Entrepreneurs to earn a living. Many can drop out or decrease their efforts over time after their initial, easy-to-reach market is saturated.
2) Rural populations are spread out and therefore time-consuming and expensive to reach.
3) Reading glasses are a high-touch, low-margin product.

RESPONDING TO THE CHALLENGE

This past February, VisionSpring El Salvador launched the pilot of a new business model that addresses these significant constraints. This model incorporates a VisionSpring optical shop into our existing networks of Vision Entrepreneurs, enabling VisionSpring to sell distance glasses for the first time. Our Vision Entrepreneurs continue to play a critical role in this model by generating awareness and selling on-the-spot reading glasses, yet they now have the opportunity to earn more income through referrals and receiving a portion of sales from distance glasses.

Expected benefits of the project are as follows:

Expanded Service Provision

Adding distance glasses to the program would dramatically expand VisionSpring’s service-provision. Instead of addressing 50% of eye care problems for those aged 35-60, with this model VisionSpring hopes to to service 75-85% of their needs (the remaining consist of more complictaed refractive and non-refractive problems ). Along with enabling VisionSpring to reach those who need distance glasses to work and earn a living, this model would also to provide children with the clear vision they need to learn and earn their way out of poverty.

Increased Sustainability

By providing glasses in more densely populated zones, VisionSpring can provide a viable alternative to high-priced, independent optical shops. The VisionSpring optical shop aims to serve as a central location for rural customers to come for low-cost distance glasses, as well as a hub for VisionSpring to serve poor customers living in more dense markets. The higher margin distance glasses VisionSpring provides in this model (still affordable to BoP customers) have the potential to increase VisionSpring’s sustainability, as well as increase Vision Entrepreneur income and lower Vision Entrepreneur attrition.

EARLY RESULTS

In the coming six months, VisionSpring will closely analyze the results from the pilot in Santa Ana. Early indicators, however, are promising. In the first four vision campaigns at VisionSpring’s optical shop, more than 140 pairs of prescription lenses were sold. Customers happily waited in lines for hours to purchase their first pair of affordable, quality eyeglasses.

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

The Fraserview Boys and Girls Club of Greater Vancouver recently selected VisionSpring as its inspiration for the production of a claymation video. The video, made by a group of elementary-school students, highlights VisionSpring’s work promoting self-reliance and economic productivity using the story of a guide dog struggling with blurry vision.

VisionSpring in Claymation from elizabeth kaplan on Vimeo.

We couldn’t be more excited to see this animated interpretation of our work! A sincere thanks to these creative young people!

About The Fraserview Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Vancouver

Founded in 1936 and incorporated as a charitable organization in 1938, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Vancouver (BGCGV) provides a wide range of social, health, educational and recreational services to assist young people in their growth and development. Summer camp, low-cost recreational programs, alcohol and drug abuse counselling, after-school drop in programs and parent support are just a few of the programs provided on seasonal and daily basis to over 6,000 youth and families by core staff and over 1,200 volunteers.

To learn more about BGCGV

In the February 14, 2010 edition of Parade Magazine, VisionSpring Founder and CEO, Dr. Jordan Kassalow recounts what sparked his ‘eureka’ moment, where he discovered the enormous need for vision care at the base of the pyramid. Dr. Kassalow also sat down with Entrepreneur Magazine (March, 2010) to discuss how the organization grew from an idea to a global enterprise that operates in eleven countries with a corps of more than five thousand entrepreneurs.

The following is an excerpt from Dr. Kassalow’s interview in Parade:

Why did you start VisionSpring?
When I was an optometry student, I volunteered in Mexico and met a 7-year-old boy at a school for the blind. All he needed was the right glasses. When I put them on him, his face changed from a blank stare into this incredible, animated, beautiful smile. It changed his life—and mine.

How does the program work?
So many people in underprivileged areas lose their livelihoods as they age because they can’t afford the glasses they need to see their work. At the same time, millions of women need a way to support themselves. We decided to train women to start small businesses selling glasses to their neighbors at a price they can afford. We began with 18 women and currently have more than 5000 selling glasses from Ghana to El Salvador.

To take VisionSpring and the growing corps of Vision Entrepreneurs to the next level, the organization needed to develop a scalable and replicable model. In “The Vision Thing,”Jason Daley of Entrepreneur Magazine describes the solution – VisionSpring’s innovative microfranchisie model, which lies at the heart of VisionSpring’s global impact:

“Microfranchising works essentially like any franchise system. A locally based franchise partner—usually a local NGO or corporation with a strong local presence, signs up “vision entrepreneurs,” 95 percent of whom are women, who receive a “business in a bag” including glasses, eye charts and three days of training. They then travel from village to village marketing and selling the reading glasses for what typically amounts to 10 percent of a month’s salary. It’s a win-win-win situation—the franchisors put back whatever revenues they get from consignment sales to fund more entrepreneurs; the sellers create a viable livelihood; and workers in remote villages have access to glasses that might not reach them otherwise.”

Check out the full articles to hear more insights from VisionSpring’s founder:

Parade Magazine
Entrepreneur Magazine

Vogue recently featured a new line of socially-conscious specs by Warby Parker, “a line of boutique vintage-inspired frames and lenses for savvy urbanites at a revolutionary (read: low) price point.”
The idea for the line came from Wharton School of Business student Andy Hunt, who was frustrated after repeatedly losing his frames and being forced to pay a bundle for frames he didn’t care for. Hunt collaborated with three other entrepreneurs (classmates at Wharton) to make the line a reality. One of the four founders is former VisionSpring Director, Neil Blumenthal.

Genevieve Bahrenburg of Vogue writes:

“The founders didn’t enter into the eyewear business blindly. Blumenthal had spent the previous five years with the non-profit foundation VisionSpring, which provided low-cost eyeglasses in developing countries and won him the distinction of developing the first line of reading glasses for populations living on less than $4 a day. Relying on Blumenthal’s insight, the founders discovered they could dramatically lower prices by cutting out cost-inflating middlemen like optical shops and licensing companies and selling the glasses exclusively online, where you can upload your photo and virtually try on different pairs before committing to a style. As a result, all Warby Parker eyeglasses, which include anti-reflective prescription lenses, are available for less than $100, and better yet, these frames have a social conscience.”

For every pair purchased, Warby Parker will donate a pair to the world’s “500 million visually impaired, impoverished people.”

Plus, since the line is available exclusively online, the “virtual try-on” feature of the website is a fun and easy way to test out your look before committing to a frame. Why not give it a try on the aptly named monocle, the Colonel?

We at VisionSpring love Warby Parker’s look and the attention given to the millions of people in the developing world without access to vision care. Thanks to Blumenthal’s innovative business insight, socially-conscious urbanites and fashion-conscious social entrepreneurs and the like can step out in (affordable) style.

To read the full article on Vogue.com.

Check out Warby Parker here!

Last week Scientific American reported on an American Journal of Epidemiology study that has discovered a surprising connection between untreated vision problems and dementia in the elderly. The study indicates that untreated vision problems can contribute to the onset of the disease.

An excerpt from the article:

“Visual problems can have serious consequences and are very common among the elderly, but many of them are not seeking treatment,’ said University of Michigan researcher Mary Rogers, the study’s lead author, in a prepared statement.

Poor vision often prevents people from participating in the types of activities thought to reduce Alzheimer’s risk, such as socializing, reading, and physical activity. Early treatment of vision disorders, the authors suggest, could delay the onset of dementia, and of Alzheimer’s disease in particular.”

VisionSpring’s mission is to spark opportunity in the developing world by providing affordable vision care where it is inaccessible, targeting middle aged workers in end-of-the-road communities whose livelihoods are hindered by the natural onset of blurry up-close vision. This new found link between untreated vision problems and dementia reveals another critical economic and social benefit to VisionSpring’s work

To read the full article, click here.

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.