ABOUT SVOSH
The Student Volunteers for Optometric Service to Humanity
MISSION STATEMENT
The primary mission of SVOSH is to facilitate the provision of vision care worldwide to people who can neither afford nor obtain such care.STUDENT MEMBERS
Click here to view member listWHAT WE DO
The Student Volunteers for Optometric Service to Humanity (SVOSH) is a 501(3)(c) organization that helps provide eye care and eyewear to developing nations. SVOSH holds weekly meetings at which volunteers sort and package used eyeglasses donated by the Lions Club and other organizations.
Donations also fund airfare and living expenses for students going on trips to underprivileged countries to conduct free eye exams. SVOSH students and doctors have made trips to Belize, Brazil, Costa Rica, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Kenya, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, and Venezuela.
Students at OSU College of Optometry became affiliated with VOSH in 1984.
TRIP PREPARATION
This-year long process consists of the following:
1. Sorting glasses
We sort thousands of glasses into different prescriptions (Men’s and Women’s Single Vision, Bifocals, Children’s, Sunglasses, and Gold)
2. “Lensoing” (checking glass prescriptions); and packaging the glasses
3. Lions Club Presentations: asking for donations and glasses and creating awareness of SVOSH
* Lions Clubs contributes a substantial amount of money toward our trip annually
* Sends glasses to the school to be sorted
THINGS WE BRING ON OUR TRIP
- Sunglasses: every patient gets a pair
- Prescription Glasses
- Trial Lens Sets
- Lens Bars
- Stethoscope
- Perkins tonometer
- Penlights
- Hand-held slit lamp
- Hand-held lensometer
- Ophthalmoscope
- Retinoscopes
- Toys, stickers for the children
- Clipboards
- Low vision magnifiers/equipment
- Extension cord
- Frame warmer
- Lens repair kit
SOME CURRENT OSU OPTOMETRISTS WHO HAVE BEEN ON SVOSH MISSIONS
Dr. David DawsonDr. Nick Fogt
Dr. Gina Gabriel
Dr. Julia Geldis
Dr. Nicky Lai
Dr. Kelly Nichols
Dr. Gil Pierce
Dr. Andy Toole
Dr. Vince Driggs (Brecksville VA Preceptor)
Dr. Richard Frick (Vermont VA Preceptor)