New Collaboration Brings Free Vision Care to Thousands of Zambian Students
In a landmark joint effort, the Roger Federer Foundation and the OneSight EssilorLuxottica Foundation have completed their first outreach program in Zambia, delivering free vision screenings and eyewear to schoolchildren. Coordinated to align with World Sight Day on October 9, the initiative screened more than 2,700 children across community schools in the Mazabuka, Mbala, and Nyimba districts. The program, run in partnership with local NGOs Reformed Open Community Schools (ROCS) and Zambia Open Community Schools (ZOCS), also distributed prescription eyeglasses and sunglasses on-site to over 200 beneficiaries, free of charge.
A Strong First Step: Complementary Strengths
The project marks the first formal collaboration between the two foundations, combining the Roger Federer Foundation’s deep roots in Zambia’s education sector with OneSight EssilorLuxottica Foundation’s global expertise in vision care delivery. The initiative builds on the Roger Federer Foundation’s ongoing School Readiness Initiative, which supports education across 1,900 community schools in all 10 provinces. Federer’s long-standing relationship with EssilorLuxottica through his eyewear collaboration with Oliver Peoples further complements this partnership, underscoring a shared commitment to equipping children for academic success.
Leadership Perspectives and Vision for Education
Roger Federer, founder of the Roger Federer Foundation, emphasized the transformative power of clear vision in learning. “Good vision was essential to everything I did on court. But for children, it’s about something even more important—their education and their future. I’m proud that through this partnership, we can help give thousands of learners in Zambia the vision care they need to see clearly, stay focused in school, and reach their potential.”
How the Program Operates and What’s Next
Under the collaboration, the Roger Federer Foundation and local partners arranged access to schools, enrolled teachers, and mobilized communities. The OneSight EssilorLuxottica Foundation led vision screenings and eyeglass dispensing, while also supplying equipment and data collection tools. A consolidated evaluation report will be produced to guide future outreach in Zambia and beyond. Early results from this pilot are informing a broader plan that will incorporate teacher training—ensuring that educators play an active role in early detection and ongoing support for students with vision needs.
Embedding Vision Checks in Education
The next phase will place teacher training at the core of the program. Educators will learn basic vision screening techniques, establish streamlined referral pathways to vision centers, and integrate vision checks into student enrollment processes. This sustainable approach aims to identify vision problems early, minimize learning disruptions, and create a model that can be replicated in other regions.
Broader Goals: SDG Alignment and Sustainable Impact
The partnership supports Sustainable Development Goal 4.2, which seeks universal access to quality early childhood development and pre-primary education by 2030. By improving students’ ability to see clearly, the collaboration aligns with broader educational outcomes and helps ensure that children in Zambia have a fair chance to succeed academically and in life.
Established in 2003, the Roger Federer Foundation operates across multiple Southern African countries and Switzerland. Its focus on early learning and educator empowerment—via tablet-based tools and community engagement—complements the vision care mission initiated with EssilorLuxottica’s global network. The collaboration demonstrates how cross-sector partnerships can move education forward by addressing foundational barriers like vision health that affect a child’s readiness to learn.
This article reflects a collaborative editorial process, with input from multiple sources and human editorial review prior to publication.
