A simple pair of eyeglasses can change the life of a person experiencing homelessness.
In downtown Salt Lake City, one mother explained eye care and eyeglasses make all the difference in caring for her young children, maintaining her health, and holding down a job.
Viveca, 24, explains poor eyesight runs in her family and that she watched her grandmother go blind. In her life, bad vision has contributed to being unhoused and to job loss.
鈥淚 was working in a warehouse with these little plastic pieces, and I could hardly see what I was doing鈥攊t put me out of work,鈥 says Viveca. 鈥淚 can鈥檛 drive without glasses, especially not at night.鈥
Viveca says she鈥檚 also prone to headaches due to poor vision, which can keep her from parenting her 2-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son in the ways she鈥檇 like to.
Viveca received a free eye exam and a new pair of eyeglasses from John A. Moran Eye Center volunteer physicians, medical personnel, and donors at a March 24 event in Salt Lake City. The nationwide effort connects the unhoused with community resources, including food, clothing, employment, legal support, housing information, and health care, including dental and vision services.
Moran volunteers provided 110 eye exams and 110 pairs of eyeglasses at Salt Lake City's 2023 Project Homeless Connect.
Across Utah, Moran鈥檚 Global Outreach Division provides underserved populations with access to sight-restoring eye care and surgery. Abroad, the division works to create and foster sustainable eye care systems in low-resource countries such as Tanzania.
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All Moran outreach work is funded by generous donors in the community. Learn more about the program鈥攁nd how to donate鈥here.