About volunteering

Our vision is a world where no one lives in poverty because of poor eyesight and no one lives with poor eyesight because of poverty. Our mission is to enable people living in poverty to access affordable spectacles and eye care.

VAO’s volunteers help deliver on its vision and mission.

Our volunteer model:

Supports the Global Standard for Volunteering for Development.
Is driven by the needs of the country partners we work with to help them build robust eye care services.
Supports the needs of our charity; VAO receives flexible and varying support from volunteers.
Has a range of volunteering roles.

Read these documents to find out more

VAO’s Position on Professional Volunteering (Summary version)

This is the best place to learn more, quickly, and includes a helpful statement around outreach.

VAO’s Position on Professional Volunteering (Full version)

This longer paper captures more detail around our latest review process, our research, and the evidence based recommendations that were approved by VAO's Board in 2019.

Global Standard for Volunteering for Development - published by The International Forum for Volunteering in Development (Forum).

VAO has signed a declaration to support the standard and so our future volunteering roles will align to its recommendations for best practice.

Become involved to help the world to see

It is very important to us that you are a Member of VAO. This is a good way to remain involved with the work of VAO and to stay up to date. And it’s a valuable way to ‘help the world to see’ via regular subscription fees, which are used to fund charitable activities in Africa and change thousands of lives.

Our pledge to sharing information about how we work and its impact

We publish the details of all the main restricted grant funds we receive for our country programmes on our website, so everyone can clearly see what activities VAO is under agreement to deliver in the countries in which we work.

Volunteer Roles

Please see our Volunteer Opportunities page for any current volunteering opportunities.

Have questions?

Look first at our FAQs to see if your questions are answered.

Need to contact us?

Please email [email protected] in the first instance.

Real Stories

See Real Stories for the changes made to people's lives.

Latest

Eye care for all by 2030

Eye care for all is in sight! All 193 countries of the United Nations General Assembly have unanimously agreed to enshrine eye health as part of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Effective Altruism and Vision Aid Overseas

Effective Altruism is a modern-day philosophy or approach on living, looking at how we can use our own individual resources to help others in need, in the most effective way to allow for the biggest impact.
Seeing clearly in Zambia

VAO has been working in partnership with Specsavers to improve access to eye care in Zambia for the past 10 years. We are integrating eye care into primary healthcare, at the community level, and into national school eye health plans.
VAO joins global call to declare a climate emergency

This World Earth Day, April 22nd, Vision Aid Overseas joined the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness in declaring a climate emergency and calling for action on environmentally sustainable practices in the eye health sector.

Training Courses

If you are an Optometrist or Dispensing Optician your skills could help change lives. Find out more at our one-day volunteer training course.
Where we work

Africa has 73% more blind and visually impaired people than any other region in the world. Vision Aid Overseas works with local governments and community groups across four countries in Africa to ensure they establish and deliver their own sustainable eye care services. Find out more...
Testimonials

See what our volunteers had to say about their time volunteering with Vision Aid Overseas and it changed their lives and the lives of their patients.