Giving Matters: Servants for Sight provides eye care, glasses to neighbors in need

For those without access to routine eye care, hidden but treatable conditions can have devastating consequences. The need for corrective lenses or cataract surgery can lead to loss of a driver’s license, employment, and the ability to provide a home and care for loved ones. Missed signs of glaucoma or macular degeneration may result in blindness.

Servants for Sight, an Upstate nonprofit founded in 2009, works to prevent such losses by connecting people from under-resourced communities with optometrists and ophthalmologists who volunteer their time to offer free or low-cost eye care. The nonprofit partners with free medical clinics, food banks and churches to reach low-income, homeless and uninsured patients in the Upstate. 

Amy Evette, executive director, said SFS uses its mobile unit, the Vision Van, to provide screenings at more than 10 Upstate locations. The van is equipped to test visual acuity and photograph the back of the eye to detect signs of diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma and macular degeneration. Drs. Darrell Jervey and Jeff McGill also provide monthly screenings at Triune Mercy Center. 

Patients who need further care are referred to local eye doctors. Servants for Sight covers the out-of-pocket cost for glasses, treatments, surgery centers and anesthesiologists.

“We work with 58 doctors from 16 practices at 36 locations who provide care pro bono,” Evette said. “We send them patients who have already had their income verified, their insurance eligibility checked and their vision screened. We do the administrative work and the doctors make the magic happen.”

The nonprofit also serves internationally by organizing mission trips to provide vision screenings and cataract surgery in places where care is not available. Recently they have worked with partners to treat patients in El Salvador and Kenya.

“This January in Kenya one optometrist, Dr. David MacDonald, saw 1,000 patients in a week,” Evette said. “In the U.S., a doctor working full time will see 30 patients in a day.” 

Thanks to its low overhead and use of volunteer providers, SFS’s model is a very efficient use of resources to serve the most patients at locations convenient for them. The mobile unit allows clinics in seven Upstate counties to offer comprehensive services without each one having to own the necessary equipment. 

“This year, our providers donated more than $2 million worth of in-kind services,” Evette said. “For every dollar given, we can provide $6.67 in care.”

Dr. Daniel Apple, an ophthalmologist with Retina Consultants of Carolina P.A., has volunteered with Servants for Sight for about five years. He said the partnership evolved naturally out of the need to care for patients, many of whom present with retinal detachments due to accidents, chance or diabetic retinopathy. 

“A lot of the people we see are working very hard to make ends meet and they come to us in pretty bad shape, needing treatment or surgery,” he said. “Servants for Sight is invaluable in taking away the financial burden of receiving necessary care — and a lot of the time, for vision-saving care.”

A 2022 Capacity Building Grant from the Community Foundation of Greenville paid for updates to the SFS website including software that allows patients to fill out their own application for services online, rather than having staff do it. The grant also purchased iPads for staff members to upload patient information following vision screenings. These timesaving upgrades improved the nonprofit’s capacity to provide care while reducing costs, since salaries are a major expense.

To learn more, volunteer or donate, visit servantsforsight.org.