April 25, 2024 — To mark April’s Women’s Eye Health and Safety Month, the OneSight EssilorLuxottica Foundation highlights its work toward expanding vision care access to women.

To address the lack of access to care in rural areas, the foundation created its flagship Eye Mitra program in India in 2013 to train unemployed and underemployed youth in delivering essential eyecare services in areas where vision care was previously unavailable. To date, more than 27,700 rural optical points have created rural livelihoods in vision care.

“My commitment to making a life-changing impact on women in rural communities is exemplified through the Eye Mitra model, which focuses on the development of rural optical entrepreneurs,” says Patricia Koh, associate director of EssilorLuxottica’s Base of Pyramid Innovation Lab. “Our dedicated opportunities for women rural optical entrepreneurs empower them to contribute financially to their families, all while remaining close to home.”

The program is supported by the foundation’s Ready2Clip glasses—a quickly assembled, customizable eyewear solution often used in rural and developing areas. The foundation shares that the eyewear line considers factors like women’s smaller face shapes and pupillary distances.

In North America, the foundation is raising awareness and funds through participating eyecare practices and EssilorLuxottica retailers including LensCrafters, Sunglass Hut, Oakley, and Ray-Ban.

Since its inception, the foundation has created permanent access to vision care for more than 762 million people and provided more than 71.8 million people in underserved regions with eyewear.