Volunteer Optometric Services to Humanity (VOSH)

About VOSH

Volunteer Optometric Services to Humanity (VOSH) International is an organization aimed to provide the gift of vision and eye health to people worldwide, especially to those in underserved communities. VOSH at Berkeley is a student chapter affiliated with VOSH that utilizes Berkeley student volunteers for service trips locally and internationally.

Their Mission

VOSH believes in the freedom to see. Providing the gift of vision and eye health to people worldwide. They facilitate the provision and the sustainability of vision care worldwide for people who can neither afford nor obtain such care. Their goal is to increase our global impact whenever possible by supporting sustainable eye clinics, optometry schools and optometric educators in areas lacking sufficient eye care.

VOSH in Nicaragua

The student VOSH chapter at Berkeley successfully completed a 4-day, free eye health clinic in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua in January of 2023. The team consisted of 17 Berkeley Optometry students, multiple volunteers from UC Berkeley (including faculty and staff), 8 optometrists, volunteers from VOSH-Connecticut, and many more. They provided free eye exams to 3,963 people while offering prescription glasses, reading glasses, sunglasses, medications for glaucoma and dry eye, referrals for cataracts and pterygia, and other donations.

To read more, click the button below!

Berkeley VOSH Leadership

Berkeley VOSH Members

Early Humanitarian Efforts

Berkeley Optometry has a long history of providing humanitarian eye care to underserved populations. Services to local Bay Area populations began in the 1920s, continuing uninterrupted to the present day. The first international project took place in 1968–69 when optometry student volunteers traveled to Tijuana, Mexico for Christmas and Easter vacations under the auspices of Project Concern, a nonprofit organization headquartered in New York and operating healthcare clinics in New Mexico, Appalachia, Hong Kong, and Vietnam.

In 1989, students established our Berkeley chapter of VOSH and conducted their first chapter mission when volunteer students and clinicians traveled to the Philippine island of Negros Occidental, where they screened approximately 3,000 patients. The success of these international eye-care projects set the stage for efforts in humanitarian vision care that continue today. Berkeley Optometry VOSH missions include visits to Guatemala, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Mexico, Kenya, and Vietnam.

Berkeley VOSH in Narra
In 2018, Berkeley VOSH traveled to the municipality of Narra, on the island of Palawan, where they saw ~2,200 patients in five days of vision screenings. Students performed retinoscopy and refractions, evaluated for medical referrals, and dispensed free glasses that were collected from friends, family and other donors before the trip. Day 1 was at an elementary school, day 2 at a small village, and the rest of the days they set up at the office of the mayor of Narra. Click the button below to watch a video dedicated to the trip on YouTube.

Questions?

For general questions and how to join, please contact Berkeley VOSH President,
Landen Longson: landen_longson@berkeley.edu