While working in an eye doctor's office during college, Jennifer Staple discovered many low-income people were going blind from lack of medical care. When she learned 80-percent of all blindness is preventable, she knew she had to do something.

At age nineteen, Staple founded Unite for Sight to help low-income patients get eye screenings and treatment for blindness-causing diseases like glaucoma.

"I never anticipated that it would become anything more than just a student organization and helping just a small group of maybe 500 people each year in New Haven, Connecticut," Staple told Ivanhoe.

To date, Unite for Sight has helped more than half a million people and has 4,000 volunteers throughout the U.S. and Canada. But the organization doesn't stop there -- each year it sends 250 volunteers to Ghana, India and Thailand.

"We work with these clinics to go into very remote, rural villages and provide eye care to people who are living in extreme poverty and are not even able to afford daily meals," Staple said.

The organization has sponsored more than 12,000 sight-restoring surgeries in the developing world.

"They then go from being completely blind to having their sight entirely restored by this 15 minute operation," said Staple.

Contrary to popular belief, today's youth is serving communities more than any generation before. One survey found teens and college students are one-third more likely to volunteer their time than older Americans and 65-percent of high school students are volunteers.

Back home, Staple and other Unite for Sight volunteers continue to provide free eye screenings and match patients with free health care programs.

"We usually don't have access to health care. It costs a lot to get an eye checkup so it's great that there are people who can help us out and tell us what's wrong with our eyes," eye patient Rosh Sethi, told Ivanhoe.  

Helping people see has not only helped those in need -- it's also helped Staple find her true passion. She is currently studying to be an ophthalmologist and hopes to one day perform sight-restoring surgeries herself.

If you would like more information, please contact:

Jennifer Staple
jstaple@uniteforsight.org