SEE International

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. To make this goal a reality, we recruit and organize medical teams, then get them the critical supplies and logistical support they need to transform lives. Since 1974, SEE International has provided almost 5,000,000 eye exams and over half-a-million surgeries.

We work with over 600 volunteer ophthalmologists to make a difference in the world by treating preventable vision impairment in developing countries. 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. Manual Small Incision Cataract Surgery is a revolutionary, sight-restoring surgical technique that 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 300 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, Bausch & Lomb and more, 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.

To further enhance the sustainability and scalability of our work, SEE devotes significant resources toward the education of eye care professionals, particularly in regions that lack ophthalmologists and optometrists. By disseminating knowledge and skills of vision-restoring techniques like Manual Small Incision Cataract Surgery, we create a rippling effect that diminishes the pervasiveness of visual impairments around the world.

Over the last four decades, SEE International has screened just under 5 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. We have seen similar progress in our education initiatives, as well. Since 2012, we have trained a total of 662 surgeons, physicians, and residents in Manual Small Incision Cataract Surgery across over a dozen locations. SEE's goal is to continue working in new countries and with new partners for as long as visual impairment remains a global issue.