Surrounded by measuring tapes and ornate paintings of Hindu gods hanging on the walls of his dimly lit workshop, Adimulam Devanand in Gopalpet pushed the bridge of his glasses up his nose and hunched over a sewing machine to stitch a shirt.
A year ago, Devanand, 42, had lost the ability to see objects as fine as a needle and thread, and his tailoring business was faltering. Desperate to support his two children, he went to a local clinic where he was diagnosed with presbyopia, an age-related disorder in which the eyes progressively lose the ability to focus. The clinic sold him a pair of corrective glasses for Rs 150. Devanand was immediately able to return to his craft.
Devanand’s eyesight and livelihood were saved through the efforts of an innovative microfranchise programme developed by the Scojo Foundation, a non-profit social enterprise that uses market-based solutions to distribute inexpensive corrective glasses in the developing world.
Through Scojo, reading glasses that in the developed world can easily be found in any pharmacy or corner shop are becoming available to the world’s poorest citizens, giving them the opportunity to regain their livelihoods.
Operating in six countries, the foundation has trained more than 1,000 people to become microfranchise owners, or “vision entrepreneurs”, who conduct basic eye exams, sell affordable prescription glasses and refer those who need advanced eye care to clinics and hospitals.
“We create livelihoods for our entrepreneurs and sustain livelihoods for our customers,” said Dr Jordan Kassalow, the New York optometrist and Council on Foreign Relations health expert who co-founded Scojo in 2002.
Using 5 per cent of profit from the for-profit luxury eyewear company Scojo Vision, and grants from organisations like George Soros’s Open Society Institute and the Acumen Fund, the Scojo Foundation addresses the most basic eye-care needs of local communities.
Microfranchising, say its advocates, provides men and women in urban slums and isolated villages with the training, products and marketing guidance to get small businesses up and running.
By doing so, they connect millions of customers off the beaten path to telecommunications, health care and an array of other goods and services that improve the quality of life.
Since its inception in 2002, Scojo has joined forces with more than 20 private companies and non-governmental organisations in Bangladesh, India, Ghana, El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico to train microfranchise owners, often linking up with existing networks of health workers, peddlers and shopkeepers.
In April, Scojo began collaboration with the nonprofit health organisation Population Services International to distribute glasses throughout sub-Saharan Africa.
Since arriving in India nearly three years ago, the programme has become the organisation’s largest and fastest-growing, training more than 450 Vision Entrepreneurs and selling more than $1,00,000 worth of glasses.
In addition to overseeing 150 of their own Vision Entrepreneurs, Scojo India also trains partners like Hindustan Lever; Drishtee, a company that sets up pay-per-use computer kiosks in rural areas; and Development Alternatives, an organisation that sells environmentally sustainable technology.
These partners then train their own health workers and entrepreneurs, who add glasses to their existing basket of services that include condoms, soaps and solar-powered lanterns.
In the village of Motakondury, Srilata, a Scojo microfranchise owner, shares the work of giving eye exams to customers and selling glasses with her husband, Srinivas, who still works as a machine operator at a local munitions factory.
Srilata says that working with Scojo has not only afforded the couple the ability to send their learning-disabled son to a special boarding school, but has also given her a measure of financial independence and a position of leadership in the community.
