Vision For A Nation

What is Vision for a Nation?

Vision for a Nation Foundation (VFAN) was established in 2011 by founder and philanthropist, James Chen. The ambition of Vision for a Nation (VFAN) was to develop domain expertise on the issue of vision correction for the developing world and to develop innovative solutions to overcome the barriers to delivering eye care. Rwanda was chosen as the first programme country.

In just over five years with the support of the founder, funding from DFID, USAID and UBS Optimus Foundation, and in partnership with Rwanda’s Ministry of Health, VFAN transformed eye care in Rwanda (2012-2018). VFAN enabled the Rwandan government to make Primary Eye Care (PEC) universally accessible to the entire population. Building on the success from Rwanda, VFAN expanded operations in Ghana (Central and Upper East Regions), from 2019 to 2022. The Ghana programme was supported with further funding from James Chen and with grants from USAID, UBS Optimus Foundation and Medicor Foundation.

In 2016, VFAN was awarded the top prize in the coveted International Aid and Development category at the UK Charity Awards – the longest-running and most prestigious awards in the sector.

Milestones

Delivered the world’s first national eye care provision programme to Rwanda’s 12 million person population across 15,000 villages in partnership with the Ministry of Health.

Trained 2,797 nurses and screened 2 million people in the first two years alone.

Dispensed 1.3 million prescriptions for eye medication, provided over 186,000 pairs of glasses and referred 250,000 people for specialist treatment.

Helped to reduce the cost of eye care by up to 80% in Rwanda.

In Ghana, VFAN trained 359 nurses and provided over 67,000 vision assessments during the programme's lifetime.

The Journey

In 2012, Rwanda had a severe shortage of eye care specialists, with only eight ophthalmologists and four registered optometrists for a population of 12 million. These specialists primarily operated at province and district levels, which meant there was little or no possibility of rural communities receiving eye care services. Patients attending health centres with eye or vision complaints were immediately referred to district hospitals – which often lacked an eye specialist – to seek further treatment.

By training over 2,797 nurses in local communities on how to deliver an eye test – prescribing glasses and, where required referring patients to an optometrist – in just over five years, VFAN established a nationwide service, fully integrated into the health system and national insurance scheme in partnership with Rwanda's Ministry of Health. The scale of the programme was unprecedented: no organisation had developed an eye care service for a whole country before and no other emerging nation has ever come close to achieving universal, local eye care.

The services were made accessible to all 12 million people in Rwanda through the national network of 502 health centres that provide primary health care to the general population. Crucially, VFAN’s agreement and partnership with the Ministry of Health made the national rollout possible. Once the screenings were complete, the primary eye care services were handed over to the Ministry of Health and integrated into Rwanda’s national health system. This allowed Rwanda’s Ministry of Health to assume full responsibility for managing the services in January 2018.

In acknowledgement of this success, VFAN was awarded the top prize in the coveted International Aid and Development category at the 2016 UK Charity Awards – the longest-running and most prestigious awards in the sector.

In 2022, Vision For A Nation transferred its programmes, knowledge and expertise to Vision Action.

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The Legacy of VFAN

Coming off the back of COVID-19 and the ever-shrinking international development funding pot, the two organisations decided in late 2021 that it would be in their best interests to seek a longer-term partnership which would allow them to combine forces and scale their ambition. The subsequent merger would enable the newly named Vision Action to scale up its operations and to build their PEC capacity.

The collaboration demonstrated commitment from both VAO and VFAN who previously had benefited from a good working relationship built over five years, starting in 2017. On the 1st March 2022, the two organisations shared a joint mandate of enabling people living in poverty to access affordable eye care and glasses and achieve greater efficiency and impact through this joint endeavour.

VFAN’s team in Ghana became Vision Action staff, and Vision Action invited both VFAN’s CEO and a trustee to join their Board of Trustees. This will help to embed VFAN’s spirit of innovation and assist in the transformation that this opportunity brings.

Vision Action will continue to provide VFAN’s programme in Ghana, in line with their mission. The combined expertise of the two organisations will help to increase impact over the coming years and bring essential eye care services to those that need it most. Our programmes in Ghana will build on the legacy of VFAN in delivering Primary Eye Care for communities and school-based screening for children.

By bringing the two organisations together, our offer is more comprehensive and plays to our combined strengths, so we can have a greater impact on strengthening access to eye care not only in Ghana but also in Sierra Leone, Zambia and Ethiopia.