Whether you are able to participate as a volunteer or not, your monetary donations, regardless of the amount, will make a difference. Donations are used to directly to support short term mission teams to conduct eye clinic operations. Here are a few examples of where donations are spent…

• To purchase prescription glasses, reading glasses, and sunglasses.  While we utilize refurbished prescription glasses where needed, our goal is to distribute glasses that are new and of good quality whenever possible.  Through partnerships with our suppliers, we’ve been able to keep the average cost of new glasses at approximately $3.00/pair.  Just think…on average, your one time gift of $30.00 can provide glasses to 10 individuals.  Or better yet, your recurring gift of just $30.00 per month can provide glasses to 120 individuals per year!
• To cover short term mission team expenses.  SMI provides a Trip Leader for each trip to help coordinate travel needs and oversee eye clinic operations.  The average cost to SMI for each trip is around $2,200.  While some of these expenses are covered by trip overhead charges, your donations will help keep costs lower for short term mission teams and allow more individuals to participate.
• To purchase equipment and supplies to support eye clinic operations.  Preparing for and running a quality eye clinic requires special equipment.  For example, lensometers are used to read and log prescriptions for refurbished glasses and autorefractors are used to accurately determine prescription requirements for clinic patients.  We also require IT resources for inventory and data management.  While we utilize used or refurbished equipment when available, these instruments are relatively expensive and we periodically have need to add more equipment as our ministry grows.