Ayuda International ยท Vision care
Clear sight changes how a child learns and how an adult earns a living. Alongside its dental clinics, the Ayuda family has brought eye exams and glasses to the communities it serves through Steve’s Vision and the Doc in a Box Vision Box.
Steve’s Vision
Steve Bender started Steve’s Vision years ago with a simple idea: put reading glasses in the hands of people who need them. He has been the program’s only funder, and over the years it has supplied tens of thousands of pairs of reading glasses.
In 2014 designer Lara Phillips created the Steve’s Vision logo, and volunteers began handing out glasses one pair at a time, including a year long effort to give away a pair every single day. In February 2018 a clinic in Eastvale, California brought the Doc in a Box Dental and Steve’s Vision programs together. More than 100 Rotaract students volunteered, and the clinic received certificates from the California State Senate and Assembly.
Doc in a Box Vision Box
In 2013 Steve offered to build and donate a mobile vision clinic for Kids Vision for Life Orange County, a program that gives free eye exams and glasses to school children. Like the first Doc in a Box, the trailer was built by students in the BITA and Interact programs at Western High School in Anaheim. It was dedicated in June 2014, with partners including Kids Vision for Life, the Southern California College of Optometry at Marshall B. Ketchum University, the Essilor Vision Foundation, the Alcon Foundation and VOSH.
Patrick Esquerre, the founder of La Madeleine and a Kids Vision for Life board member who chaired its development and expansion committee, worked with Steve on the partnership. When he saw the finished trailer, his reply was simple: “Bravo Steve, trailer looks great.”
Dentists, hygienists, dental students and helpers of every kind are welcome. Tell us where you would like to serve and we will send you the clinic calendar.