Friends of Vision News...

The Friends of Vision Foundation is a charitable nonprofit organization that provides eye care to poor and underserved patients worldwide. The organization is also active in helping to meet the basic needs of disadvantaged children in underdeveloped countries.  “Friends of Vision” was founded by Dr. D. Michael Colvard in 1989.

The organization’s name “Friends of Vision” was chosen to convey two meanings and objectives. It is an organization dedicated to restoring sight to the world’s most needy, and it is comprised of individuals who share a common vision of a more compassionate and caring world. In addition to working to eliminate blindness in underdeveloped countries, the Foundation provides food, clothing and education to orphaned, disabled and underprivileged children.

Medical Missions

Dr. Colvard has worked as a volunteer eye surgeon in Africa for over 18 years. Making one or more visits annually, he and his colleagues have helped to restore the vision of thousands of blind patients in some of the poorest regions of the world. Here are the stories of just a few of these patients. These short vignettes help us to appreciate the joy that is experienced not only by the patients, but by the doctors themselves in this wonderful mission...

International Children's Programs

The AIDS epidemic has devastated sub-Saharan Africa. Zambia, formerly Northern Rhodesia, is one of Africa’s poorest nations and one of the countries hardest hit by this epidemic. Societal moirés, polygamy, unemployment, poor education, and a financially strapped health care system have all played a role in the spread of the disease...

Local Children's Programs

The children of the working poor, who are not eligible for state funded programs like “MediCal”, find it difficult to obtain eye care. While some privately funded free clinics are available to provide eye examinations, it is often not possible even for the most visually impaired of these children to obtain eyeglasses...