Mission
A global campaign to raise awareness and seek innovative solutions to the number one unaddressed disability in the world: poor vision – which affects 2.5 billion people around the world.
Campaign
Founded by venture philanthropist James Chen, Clearly collaborates with startups, charities, NGOs, technology providers and governmental bodies, to advocate for global change to bring about universal eye health coverage.
Seven Hills leads Clearly’s international media campaign, working closely with founder James Chen to get poor vision on the global agenda.
A key achievement in the work Clearly and Seven Hills have collaborated on has been the inclusion of poor vision on the agenda at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2018 (CHOGM).
In a landmark decision, the leaders of all 53 Commonwealth nations committed to action to achieve ‘quality eye care for all’. This is the first time in history that the global crisis of poor vision has been formally recognised at a meeting of world leaders, and paves the way for progress that will change lives.
“Correcting eyesight doesn’t just improve lives on the margins, but makes real, substantive difference to health, education, productivity, and more. For two decades, James Chen has worked to bring impaired vision to the forefront—and his quest is finally opening eyes across global institutions.” – Josh Sims, NetJets Magazine
Momentum
Seven Hills has worked with Clearly on the launch of a landmark peer-reviewed study, published in The Lancet Global Health, which gives dramatic evidence into how a simple pair of glasses can improve workers’ productivity and reduce poverty.
Using a trial of Indian tea pickers, it was shown that the provision of glasses improves productivity by 21.7 per cent. This pivotal moment in the global health debate led to in-depth coverage by BBC World News, The Economist, and Financial Times.
In March 2019, Clearly hosted Sightgeist, a major event spotlighting the global issue of uncorrected poor vision, at London’s Science Museum.
Hosted by June Sarpong MBE, Sightgeist convened leading scientists, technologists, campaigners, innovators and thought leaders. Keynote speakers included Professor Brian Cox OBE FRS, and Lord Bates from the Department for International Development, who announced an extra £9.8 million in funding to assistive technologies globally.
