Clear Vision for Everybody

The Hindi word Aloka (आलोक) means light, view and new perspectives. And new perspectives and clear sight for people in rural areas is the main goal of Aloka. The ZEISS way is to establish a network of young entrepreneurs in rural areas who with support from ZEISS, non-governmental organizations and the project team build their own business. “Together with the team from Germany we took our brand promise seriously: We have seen beyond and found a way to enable entrepreneurs to realize ambitions”, says Sims. The ambitions of the entrepreneurs are clear: start-up their own business with selling optical services and affordable eyeglasses. ZEISS is providing them with micro-credit for initial fitting-out, basic training in optics and vision care, delivery of frames and lenses.

Wawerla adds, “of course, ZEISS as a company which is committed to social repsonsibility for more than 125 years now, invests lot of time and money into the program. But that’s support for the start and long-term support for scaling up the program, for public education. The core of Aloka is and remains a social business model, enabling entrepreneurs and partnering with organizations – a model which benefits go beyond the impact of a pure charity initiative.” The entrepreneurs learn basic vision care business over time and will be able to expand their business in the future.

But before the pilot phase started in May 2015 there were some simple questions to answer: How do we train people in basic optics? How can we support them in rural areas with experts? How shall the product look like? How to order, pay and deliver a pair of glasses when it must work without sales force or expensive order systems?

“The innovation here is definitely in finding answers to these simple questions”, says Namrata Borah, product trainer at ZEISS India and one of the driving minds behind the project. “In the Karnataka state in Southern India we cooperate with local initiatives, hired the first entrepreneurs and started pilot phase.” Learning by doing is key to further developments. “One of the first key lessons learned is that digitalization is prerequisite. Remote help from experts via Skype, ordering and payment via short message service and tablet for onsite training and consultation make our model work. It helps get cost down, it enables entrepreneurs to learn and get more and more educated. Last but not least it is the way we get our supply chain running.”

“At the end the customer gets his or her eyes measured, can buy affordable glasses, and choose the frame”, says Joachim Kuss, project partner at ZEISS Vision Care. “At an affordable price and with help from ZEISS and our partners. If we succeed in making this model spread around, support entrepreneurs in establishing basic vision care in rural areas and learn about tomorrow’s markets the program will be a win for us, for Sohum, for our partners and above all for the people who get better vision for the first time in their life.”

With now 16 partners all over India, mobile eye camps and 28 local entrepreneurs the Aloka team of 3 optometrists per month gets up to 3,000 people a vision test and up to 1,000 a pair of spectacles. Sometimes sales is sluggish, e.g. during monsoon season or elections when people have other concerns than go to an optical kiosk. So numbers still far too little? Yes, especially considering how many needy still waiting. But the impact of the Aloka Vision Programme is increasing and ZEISS is committed to grow it step by step. Customer surveys give proof that Aloka reaches the most needy and a high satisfaction with service, pricing, product and delivery.

All who think there can be done more, are warmly invited to join the efforts, for instance by funding a school screening (150 US-dollars for up to 200 children) or by donating just 3 dollars – an amount which pays for a vision test plus individualized spectacles for one needy in rural India.