Giving Compass' Take:
- Nollyanne Delacruz spotlights the work of the Healthier Kids Foundation in supporting access to vision care for underserved children.
- How can donors help address systemic barriers to health care access for underserved children, ensuring they receive vital services like vision care to succeed academically and beyond?
- Learn more about best practices in philanthropy.
- Search our Guide to Good for nonprofits in your area.
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When 11-year-old Destiny Hernandez broke her glasses while playing ball with the other kids at school, her grandmother struggled to get her a replacement pair, underscoring issues in access to vision care for children.
Susana Trejo Martinez — Destiny’s legal guardian — said her granddaughter’s needed glasses since she was five years old for nearsightedness and recalled how she often complained about headaches, pain behind her eyes and redness when she didn’t have her glasses for just a few days.
But although Trejo Martinez had vision insurance for the family and could see a doctor to ask for another pair of glasses, the insurer declined her request, saying it wasn’t time for Destiny to get a new pair.
Trejo Martinez reached out to Healthier Kids Foundation on the recommendation of a teacher. The foundation staff spoke with the doctors and her insurance provider and were able to get Destiny a new pair of glasses in just three days, much to their delight.
“I’m immensely grateful for the foundation and the people (who helped us). When I needed it most, they helped me,” Trejo Martinez said in Spanish. “In this case, I didn’t have work, I didn’t have money and I didn’t know what to do, right? But thank God I got what they (my granddaughters) needed, thanks to the foundation. And I’m immensely grateful because they concern themselves with the wellbeing of the children.”
Trejo Martinez’s story is a familiar one to the staff at Healthier Kids Foundation, a San Jose nonprofit organization made up of health screeners, case managers, community members, executives and health professionals to serve kids in Santa Clara County and help identify their unmet health needs and help them and their families get the support with access to vision care they need.
Healthier Kids Foundation CEO Melinda Snavely said the foundation is seeking a grant of $40,000 through Wish Book for their VisionFirst program, which ensures that low-income and underserved children in Santa Clara County receive vision care.
Read the full article about access to vision care for children by Nollyanne Delacruz at The Mercury News.