SEE works to create a future free of avoidable blindness and visual impairment, where individuals can lead independent lives, regardless of their income or where they live.

Local health authorities all over the world invite us to share our know-how with their clinics. We recruit and organize medical teams and get them the critical supplies and logistical support they need. Since 1974, SEE International has provided about 4,000,000 eye exams and over half-a-million surgeries.

Our 600+ volunteer ophthalmologists' desire to make a difference in the world by using their skills and personal financial resources to cure blindness in developing countries inspires us. We support their philanthropic leadership by maintaining working relationships with surgeons around the world, coordinating international clinics, gathering the best medical supplies available, and offering cutting-edge training for cataract surgery.

SEE International's primary focus is on cataract surgery. This type of surgery is one of the most cost-effective of all health interventions. A volunteer SEE International surgeon can restore the sight of a person who has been blind with cataracts for 5, 10, or even 20 years with a local anesthetic and a 30-minute surgery.

SEE International is the link that connects volunteer ophthalmologists to host clinic sites that are in desperate need of help alleviating the overwhelming numbers of people living in darkness. SEE International organizes the clinics and provides most of the equipment and supplies that are needed. SEE International's volunteer eye surgeons donate their time and pay for all their own travel expenses. During each clinic (approximately five days long), sight is typically restored to 50 to 200 people.

To make this extraordinary work both far-reaching and sustainable, SEE relies on donors. We have created a network of in-kind donors, including Alcon, Allergan, Johnson & Johnson, and Bausch & Lomb, who donate most of the supplies that are used for the clinics. The remainder of the cost—approximately $50 per surgery—is covered by generous individuals and foundations around the world.

SEE International's sole indicator for making progress is the amount of patients served annually by our volunteer doctors and medical professionals, both internationally and locally.

Over the last four decades, SEE International has screened approximately 4 million individuals and provided over half-a-million surgeries worldwide through a generous global volunteer network of more than 600 ophthalmic surgeons, registered nurses, and technicians. SEE intends to expand the scope of its operations into more countries, and reach even more patients.