Donation is the ultimate vital donation to help solve the challenge of uncorrected blurred vision.
MacKenzie Scott, the billionaire philanthropist and ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has donated $15 million ($13. 5 million) to a social enterprise that helps supply eyewear to farmers in emerging countries.
Scott’s donation to VisionSpring is the largest personal donation to help solve the problem of uncorrected blurred vision that leaves millions of people in poverty.
The donation, announced on World Sight Day, launches an initiative to supply eyeglasses to thousands of low-income tea, coffee, cocoa farmers and artisans in India, Bangladesh, Ghana, Kenya and Uganda.
VisionSpring says its $70 million crusade for Livelihoods in Focus can create more than a billion dollars in new revenue streams among tea, coffee, cocoa and artisan staff through 2030 by allowing them to see more clearly and earn more.
“Ms. Scott’s gift is a popularity of the strength of an undeniable pair of glasses to unlock the income, learning, protection and well-being of people vulnerable to poverty,” said VisionSpring Executive Director Ella Gudwin.
“And, with this hard support for our work, we embark on a multi-year adventure to put livelihoods at the centre of our minds, filling the huge gap in vision care among farmers and artisans in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. we want many more philanthropic investors, as well as governments, businesses and NGOs, to bring everyone the wonder of transparent vision.
The nonprofit said it found that between 65% and 85% of staff who purchased glasses through its vision systems had never had an eye exam and wore glasses before. for the first time.
“For workers, the benefits of this 700-year-old generation are immediate,” VisionSpring said. “They gain in productivity, profits and well-being as soon as the glasses move from one case to another. Research also shows that the quality of life glasses, decrease depression and anxiety, and increase participation in devout life and circle of relatives.
Scott raised $38 billion (£27. 5 billion) from his divorce from Bezos in 2019, the world’s largest divorce settlement, and began giving it away temporarily.
Shortly after the divorce, she said she had “a disproportionate amount of cash to share” and promised to give it away “until it’s empty. “It has already donated more than $12 billion to noble causes.
Scott did so in a letter to the Giving Pledge, the philanthropic initiative created by investor Warren Buffett and Microsoft’s top founder, Bill Gates, to inspire the world’s other wealthiest people to pledge to donate at least some of their wealth to charity.
Scott, who married Jeff Bezos in 1993, a year before Amazon from his garage in Seattle, said, “Each of us can take a lot of resources out of our vaults to share with others: time, attention, knowledge, patience, creativity, talent, effort. “, humor [and] compassion.
“In addition to the goods that life has nurtured in me, I have a disproportionate amount of money to share. My method for philanthropy will remain thoughtful. It will take time, effort and attention. But I probably wouldn’t wait. And I will continue until it is empty.
Her ex-husband, the richest user of the moment in the world with a private fortune of $ 136 billion, signed the Giving Pledge.
Last year, Scott married Seattle science teacher Dan Jewett.