An iCare510 optometrist uses a phoropter to perform a refraction test at Franklin Elementary School on March 19, 2025, to determine a student’s eyeglass prescription for free glasses. Photo/Tzu Chi USA Oakland Service Center
Written by Ida Eva Zielinska
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After their work at Franklin Elementary, beginning on August 9, the team brought the iCare510 program to other public schools in Oakland, including Garfield, East Oakland Pride, and La Escuelita Elementary Schools, and Lazear Charter Academy. By the end of November, the team had provided an additional over 250 vision screenings and eye exams at those four schools, while respecting certain rules about which grades they can serve.
In accordance with California regulations, schools are required to conduct vision screenings for certain grades each year. “The state mandate is that the school nurse has to screen the kids from second grade and fifth grade. So when we come to a school we say we will do first, third, and fourth because we don’t want to do something that the nurse is supposed to do,” Thai noted.
Wherever the iCare510 team went, school leaders warmly welcomed them and the support they brought. When they came to East Oakland Pride Elementary School on October 8, Principal Michelle Grant expressed heartfelt gratitude. “Thank you so much for bringing this initiative to our school. I am truly grateful for the assistance you provided to our children for their vision care. It is incredibly important for them,” she said.
We all know that at such a young age, it’s not just about vision when children can’t see clearly; it impacts every aspect of their learning. Therefore, we’re deeply grateful that you and the optometry team are willing to come to our school to support our children. Thank you so much!
Between February 12 and the end of November, the iCare510 team reached five schools, and there are many more on the horizon. “In this community itself, there are around 65-70 public elementary schools. Not only our community. We have people calling from San Leandro, our next city. They say, ‘Oh, can you come to our city to help our schools?’ and we say, ‘Yes, but only maybe next year. Now it’s December already.’” The team also plans to return to the schools they have already served after two years, when eyeglass prescriptions are usually no longer valid and must be renewed.
Caring for Neighbors Close to Home
The iCare510 team hasn’t only been bringing vital vision care to students in schools: The Oakland Service Center is also regularly providing free vision screenings, eye exams, and prescription glasses for low-income, uninsured community members in the surrounding neighborhood
The community around the Oakland Service Center includes many immigrant and working families who lack health insurance and struggle to meet basic needs. Many adults work long hours in low-wage jobs, leaving them under-resourced when it comes to vision care and facing significant barriers to getting help. As Jennifer Thai outlined, key issues include:
- Cost: Vision care, including regular eye exams, glasses, and treatments, can be prohibitively expensive without financial assistance.
- Insurance coverage: Although Medi-Cal (California’s Medicaid program) offers coverage for vision care, navigating this system and finding providers who accept Medi-Cal can be very difficult.
- Availability of providers: There are few optometrists and ophthalmologists who accept Medi-Cal or other low-income insurance options, resulting in long wait times for appointments.
- Transportation: Many families struggle with getting to and from appointments, particularly if providers are not located near where they live.
- Awareness and education: Many families are not aware of the importance of regular vision care or the resources available to them.
“In response to these challenges, Tzu Chi Oakland is committed to providing free eye exams and glasses,” Thai said.
By December 1, 2025, iCare510’s community outreach at the Oakland Service Center had provided three vision screening events, 48 eye exams, and 36 pairs of glasses to under-resourced residents. Because many local residents work long hours, often without paid time off, these outreach days are scheduled on weekends so they can attend. “We work with the optometrist first and they will tell us what day they can come. Then we send the information to the community through our partners, also through our food bank programs, and that’s how we get people signed up,” Thai said.
As word spread, participation has continued to rise. “The need is there, it keeps growing. We see more and more people that sign up,” she continued. Ideally, the goal is to offer this support on a regular monthly basis, but weekend timing can also make it harder to secure optometrists and to set a fixed schedule.
Even so, Thai keeps returning to the commitment that launched iCare510. “When working on this program, I always tell myself, ‘We made the vow and our volunteers are all in it.’ So we were able to get the money, we were able to get the equipment, and we have this need right now.”
One development that will help meet this recruitment need is that, following the growth of the medical team in Oakland, a chapter of the Tzu Chi International Medical Association (TIMA) was officially established there on July 17, 2025, becoming the 25th TIMA USA chapter and the seventh TIMA chapter in the Tzu Chi USA Northwest Region.
Additionally, with the help of Steven Voon, the iCare510 team established a partnership with the Herbert Wertheim School of Optometry and Vision Science at the University of California, Berkeley. Through this partnership, faculty and students will support the Oakland Service Center’s weekend community outreach. “It’s about continually building a network of people that will be coming in, so you build up a pool,” Voon said. The first outreach under this partnership took place on November 9, when one doctor of optometry and six optometry students served patients there.
From Prescription to Clear Vision
Currently, the Oakland Service Center can’t make eyeglasses on site because it doesn’t have a Tzu Chi Vision Mobile Clinic, which would be equipped with its own lab. However, thanks to support from the Fresno mobile clinic team, this limitation doesn’t prevent patients from receiving the glasses they need. As Steven Voon explained, “Every place that has a portable setup, all the glasses will be made in Fresno. They don’t have to worry about, ‘Oh, what to do? Give a prescription to the patient?’ They’re not going to buy the glasses because they don’t have money. So we have to make the glasses so as to complete the whole system.”
In practice, the iCare510 volunteers send the optometrist’s prescription and the model number of the eyeglasses frame the patient selected to Fresno, where the mobile clinic team does the rest. “Once the prescription is sent to us, that pair of glasses will be back to that location 48 hours later. We ship them out via FedEx,” Voon reported.
Ensuring speedy delivery of prescription glasses has been part of Tzu Chi USA’s vision care mission from the start. Voon recounted how, when he was designing the first Tzu Chi Vision Mobile Clinic, Master Cheng Yen asked him, “How long does a patient have to wait for a pair of glasses?” At that time, Voon had planned that the mobile clinics would send the prescriptions to a lab, so he replied, “Probably in two weeks we can get the pair of glasses back to the patient.” He vividly recalls her reply. “Master told me, ‘It’s not acceptable. When people come to you and ask for help, you need to solve their problem right away.’ So from that philosophy, I went back and redesigned the mobile to have a lab there, so that we can give the pair of glasses to the children or adults in less than ten minutes.”
While the wait in Oakland may be a bit longer than in locations with their own Tzu Chi Vision Mobile Clinic, it still doesn’t lessen the impact, or the joy when a patient receives their glasses.
When the World Comes Into Focus
The Oakland Service Center team is deeply appreciative of the iCare510 program’s growing impact, which makes the whole initiative feel all the more worthwhile.
The impact is quick and fast. I never expected that, the impact when people put on their glasses is right away, they can see.
Already, they have stories to share of lives changed. “There was one person who was so desperate to get his glasses so he could pass the DMV test and drive,” Jennifer Thai recounted. “After the eye exam, he kept calling, ‘When am I going to get glasses?’” Soon enough, the awaited call that his glasses were ready came. “I think it took him two hours to get to me to get his glasses and he was so happy. He said, ‘I can see now! I can go to my DMV and get my license.’” With that license in hand, a new level of independence and possibility would likely follow.
For students, another story stands out. “There was this one kid. It even touched our optometrist. She felt good that she came that day and was able to catch his problem,” shared Thai. The boy’s vision was so poor that it posed a grave danger to his safety. “I mean if you let him go walk on the street, you have to worry that he may get hit by a car and he doesn’t even know. That’s how bad his vision is.” When the child got his glasses, he exclaimed, “Oh my God, I can see!” His mother was almost in tears, relieved to know he could finally see clearly and move through the world more safely.
Steven Voon is always happy to share a story that truly exemplifies the far-reaching impact of Tzu Chi USA’s vision care on students. Although it’s a story from Fresno, it inspires teams like the one in Oakland to join the vision care mission. “A single mom who depends on welfare came to us and said, ‘Every time the school called me, I would ask, “What’s wrong? What did my daughter do?” But this time the school called me because my kid got an award for good academic performance,’” Voon recounted. “She used to be a D and F student. Now she’s an A and B student. So think of it. You can give a kid a chance to excel in education, get out of the welfare system, be productive in society, and also be a good citizen, engineer, teacher, whoever they want to be. They can do it.”
It may be too early for the Oakland team to see such long-term academic outcomes, but they hope to hear similar stories in the future. As Thai put it, “We have to go back and check with the principals and see what progress the kids make.”
Eyes on the Future
Jennifer Thai is happy to report on how the iCare510 program has energized the Oakland Service Center overall. “Right now, this vision program is one of our major activities, and we’re excited to do more,” she said. At the same time, this new activity brings an additional silver lining. “With this program itself, we were able to recruit a lot more volunteers to join because it’s something hands-on that they can do,” Thai noted. This is exactly the kind of growth Steven Voon hopes to see when a small chapter embraces vision care.
Looking ahead, Thai is already thinking about how to deepen and expand the program. “I’m working on another fundraising event sometime next year,” she said. The dream is to acquire a Tzu Chi Vision Mobile Clinic for Oakland, although Voon notes that such a step would require careful planning in a city where parking and storage for a large vehicle can be complicated. A mobile clinic also demands a dedicated team and significant ongoing investment. For now, the more modest portable model offers a flexible, lower-risk way to continue serving students and the community while the volunteer base and experience grow.
Oakland’s progress so far hasn’t gone unnoticed. In neighboring Fremont, Tzu Chi volunteers are now exploring how to start a similar program. “They are coming over to shadow our volunteers doing it because they want to start,” Thai shared. Voon added that Fremont and Seattle are among several locations hoping to follow suit.
As other Tzu Chi USA service areas consider the possibility of launching their own vision care effort, he keeps bringing the focus back to the heart behind the work. “The volunteer mindset is very important,” he always emphasizes when supporting medical team building across the nation. “We’re all here to do Master Cheng Yen’s mission. You and I, our ambitions or goals have to step aside. We only do Tzu Chi things, the Tzu Chi way. That means that we have to go somewhere that needs us to go help. It’s from your heart to help people.”
With 2025 drawing to a close, Jennifer Thai and the Oakland iCare510 team can look back with gratitude at how far the program has come in such a short time – from an idea to fundraising and launch to expanding services in schools and the community. Reflecting on the journey so far, Thai also wanted to acknowledge the volunteer optometrists whose service sustains iCare510.
“A heartfelt thank you to our incredible volunteer optometrists – without their generosity, compassion, and willingness to give their time, the iCare510 program simply would not be possible,” she said. “Their dedication allows our students, families, and neighbors to finally see the world clearly, opening doors to learning, confidence, and opportunity. Each exam they do, in reality, is a gift of hope. From the bottom of our hearts, we thank them for standing with us, serving with kindness, and bringing light to our community. We are truly grateful for each and every one of them.”
The story of iCare510 is still being written, and thanks to the dedication of everyone involved, its impact on students, families, and volunteers will only continue to grow.
No matter the length of the journey or the extent of our abilities, we should do our best to reach our goal. That is perseverance.
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