VisionSpring has announced a $15 million gift from Giving Pledger MacKenzie Scott that will help catalyze the nonprofit’s efforts to correct the vision of more than six million people by 2030.

VisionSpring's $70 million Livelihoods in Focus initiative will focus on low-income workers in the tea, coffee, cocoa, and artisan sectors of India, Bangladesh, Ghana, Kenya, and Uganda and help them create more than $1 billion in new income by the end of the decade. According to VisionSpring, while access to eye care and corrective lenses has been shown to raise worker productivity by as much as 32 percent, between 65 and 85 percent of workers acquiring eyeglasses through their programs have never previously had their sight tested or worn eyeglasses.

VisionSpring, which has provided corrective eyewear to 8.7 million people worldwide since its founding in 2001, announced the gift on World Sight Day to bring attention to the one billion people worldwide who lack access to basic eye care. Scott’s gift is believed to be the largest single private donation toward solving the problem of uncorrected vision as a poverty intervention.

“The gift from Ms. Scott is an incredible acknowledgement of the power of a simple pair of eyeglasses to unlock earning, learning, safety, and [well-being] for people vulnerable to poverty,” said VisionSpring CEO Ella Gudwin. “[W]ith this powerful endorsement of our work...[we] need many more philanthropic investors, along with governments, companies, and NGOs to join in bringing the wonder of clear vision to everyone.”

(Photo credit: Getty Images/Jodi Jacobson)