Students Crowdfund Blindness Treatment

By Harmeet Kaur

A team of Goizueta Business School students launched the first of a 12-tiered crowd-funding campaign this month to assist a Georgia-based nonprofit's efforts to treat cataract blindness in Honduras.

The nonprofit is called the Eradicating Cataracts Honduras Outreach (ECHO) Foundation and sends surgeons to Honduras to perform cataract surgeries, which correct a clouding in the lens of the eye that can prevent clear vision.

The project involves a series of 12 Indiegogo campaigns, with one occurring every three months for next three years. The goal of each individual campaign is to raise $15,000 for cataract surgery equipment, for a total of $180,000 by the campaign's end, according to Eric Banister, one of the students leading the project.

This past summer, second-year MBA students Jacob Ethel and Banister and B-School senior Shannon Lin began working with the ECHO Foundation and Peter Roberts, academic director of the Social Enterprise @ Goizueta (SE@G) program. They wanted to develop a sustainable fundraising solution for the San Pedro Sula Lions Eye Hospital Fraternidad in Honduras.

"[Lions Eye Hospital is] a really amazing local partner, and they have a solid operation going on," Banister said. "What they don't have is any access to investment funds or capital. They can get the people; they can get the doctors. What they can't get is the money for the equipment."

Banister said the early phases of the project consisted of background research and network building. He, along with Ethel and Lin, developed knowledge about crowd-funding and began reaching out to networks of physicians to help promote the idea.

Finally, in August, the team visited the hospital in Honduras to gain firsthand knowledge of the cause championed in their campaign. This included interviewing patients and surgeons for the videos featured on the Indiegogo pages.

Roberts said the project was unique in that it "leverages" networks across the U.S. to expand the donor base.

He explained that surgeons that visit the Lions Eye Hospital in Honduras with the ECHO Foundation are from all over the country and can thus help tap into various groups of potential donors.

"We're very cognizant of 'donor fatigue," he added. "If you ask the same people [for donations] every three months, folks might get a little tired. So we've partitioned the North American network."

Roberts also said the project was an important educational experience for the students, requiring them to understand how to market and raise capital.

Lin echoed these sentiments.

"It didn't really hit us until we actually made the trip to Honduras and visited the hospital," Lin said.

Banister said the trip to Honduras helped him realize that cataract blindness could be an easily resolved problem.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), cataract blindness, when clouding in the lens of the eye prevents clear vision, is the leading cause of blindness around the world. Despite this, the WHO states that cataracts can be surgically removed, although the problem is compounded by lack of access to eye care in parts of the developing world.

Kyle Coffey, president of the ECHO Foundation, explained that the hospital in Honduras had a qualified health care staff, but it suffered from a lack of adequate resources. The goal of each campaign, he said, is to acquire a vital piece of equipment for the hospital.

"ECHO Foundation knew what needed to happen in order to increase surgical volumes at this facility, and Professor Roberts and our student team at SE@G worked with us to develop a comprehensive plan to achieve those goals," Coffey wrote in an email to the Wheel.

According to the WHO, cataract blindness is the leading cause of blindness around the world. Despite this, the WHO states that cataracts can be surgically removed, although the problem is compounded by lack of access to eye care in parts of the developing world.

The first Indiegogo campaign was launched on Oct. 6 and will end on Nov. 5. As of Monday, the campaign had raised over $4500 of its $15000 goal toward purchasing a microscope to perform cataract surgeries.

– By Harmeet Kaur, Digital Editor

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