Vision Aid Overseas runs three types of overseas projects:

Direct Service Clinics
When Vision Aid Overseas was formed it began its work by running direct service clinics. Optometrists and DO’s would travel to poor areas of Africa and set up their clinics to test people’s eyes and dispense spectacles. This is an extremely effective way of reaching people who desperately need spectacles to live an ordinary life.

In 2008 VAO will perform Direct Service Clinics in:
Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Malawi, Uganda and Zambia.

Training Projects
Vision Aid Overseas is very conscious that if a lasting impact is ever to be made in our target countries then people must be trained in eyecare techniques and refraction. The charity performs training of nurses and students so that they can continue to help when our teams are not in country.

In 2008 VAO will perform training projects in:
Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Uganda and Zambia.

Workshop Projects
Workshops make an enormous difference to the optical potential or the countries we work in. By creating and equipping workshops – and supplying them with lenses and frames – Vision Aid Overseas is making a lasting impression.

In partnership with D&A The Opticians, Vision Aid Overseas are planning to create a new optometry department at one of Ethiopia's most important medical centres, the Menelik II Hospital. Visit www.dandacharity.co.uk to read more about the project...

At the moment, Vision Aid Overseas operates workshops in:
Ethiopia and Sierra Leone.