“Our emergency deployment builds on a year of COVID-19 mitigation activities in low-income communities. The flexible support of our funders and fantastic collaboration with partners has enabled us to quickly adapt,” said Ella Gudwin, chief executive officer, VisionSpring. “We are meeting the urgent need for COVID-19 treatment capacity now, and are also focused on the long-term public health objectives of prevention and expanding vaccination coverage.”
Ella Gudwin, CEO of VisionSpring, is a social entrepreneur and strategist with over 20 years of experience in global health and international development. She joined VisionSpring as president in 2015 to accelerate the uptake of eyeglasses in emerging and frontier markets.
VisionSpring, a social enterprise has secured an initial $1.5 million in emergency response commitments for the COVID-19 crisis in India, and that it will deliver over 1,000 oxygen concentrators and other COVID-19 care and safety supplies to frontline health workers.
VisionSpring, known for providing eyeglasses to people living on less than $4 per day, shifted its operations to emergency response in the race to save lives and slow the spread of COVID-19 in India. In 2020, they will have distributed over 2.8 million units of PPE and other COVID-19 supplies to 161 partners in India, Bangladesh, and five Sub-Saharan African countries.
“India’s fierce second wave of COVID-19 has exposed huge shortages in the health care system, not least the gap between demand and supply of medical equipment. To help bridge this, we are grateful to partner with VisionSpring to supply 500+ oxygen concentrators to various healthcare facilities as part of our emergency response to Covid relief requirements on the ground,” said Atul Satija, chief executive officer and founder 2.0, GiveIndia, the online fundraising platform of non-profit Give Foundation.
Since the start of the pandemic, VisionSpring has distributed 1.4 million units of PPE and has dispatched 1,000 sponsored oxygen concentrators. The company has ordered 50,000 more cotton masks from the self-employed Women's Association (SEWA) Bharat, bringing the total number of masks produced since the outbreak to 500,000.
It has also delivered 40 specially designed handwashing stations in recent weeks, with another 200 being manufactured in Delhi, and will incorporate vaccine registration and hesitancy counselling into its thousands of COVID-safe vision outreach programmes when they resume in the future.
Warby Parker, National Vision Inc., The Canary Charitable Foundation, McNulty Foundation, ClearVision, Safeway Concessions (Siddhantham Tollway Private Limited), Touch of Color Foundation, SEWA Bharat, World Zoroastrian Organization US Region, Zarin Neville Foundation, International Medical Corps, and Anheuser Busch InBev are among the partners supporting VisionSpring's response.
Ella Gudwin received her master's degree in emerging market economics and Southeast Asia studies from Johns Hopkins University's SAIS. She is a frequent speaker on hybrid business models that combine earned revenue and philanthropy, growing a purpose-driven business that serves low-income customers, and measuring social impact. She was previously the senior vice president of Strategy and Procurement at VisionSpring.
