COVID-19 Safety in VisionSpring’s Outreach Programs Guidelines and Toolkit

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VisionSpring is among the many global social enterprises that have had to respond to the spread and impact of the new coronavirus. VisionSpring’s primary strategic question in 2020 was how to provide people living under $4/day with access to affordable, attractive eyeglasses while also keeping its teams and customers safe from the spread of COVID-19.

VisionSpring developed a new protocol to integrate infection prevention and control into our vision outreach programs. Using national public health guidelines and input from global and field optometrists, a VisionSpring innovation team defined, beta tested and then piloted the new procedures and tools in India from July to September 2020. The process is described in the document Learning for the New Normal: VisionSpring Guidelines for COVID-19 Safe Community Vision Outreach Programs. Using the new protocols, VisionSpring restarted our community-based vision access programs in October 2020.

The guidelines and tools in this document are designed for VisionSpring teams and for peer organizations interested in using VisionSpring’s experience to adapt their own program activities. Each section includes the tools to successfully execute the relevant practice. Tools are signified by the "+" symbol which link to online resources.

VisionSpring is pleased to share these guidelines and tools with others, and to work with partners to adapt them to new contexts.