For over 30 years, OneSight’s charitable clinics have been changing hearts for good. We’ve welcomed more than 10,000 individuals into our OneSight family as volunteers – many of which have returned to serve alongside us time and time again.

These individuals are the beating heart of our charitable work and are constantly inspiring us with their passion, kindness, and drive to make a difference in the world. While OneSight clinics have evolved over the years and each have their nuances, the following is how the volunteer experience typically flows:

01. Applications
Every year, we invite OneSight supporters from all around the world to submit applications to volunteer at a OneSight charitable clinic in the year ahead. We receive thousands of applications annually, each of which are full of personality and passion for helping people see. Once submitted, volunteers patiently wait to hear if they’ve been selected to go on a OneSight clinic, where they’ll be going, who they’ll be serving, and which fellow volunteers will be joining them.

02. Selection
In a culminating annual event called OneDay, OneSight announces volunteer selections and clinic locations for the upcoming year. OneSight supporters gather far and wide to celebrate selected volunteers and the impactful work we’ll be doing together.

03. Clinic Prep
In the weeks leading up to a OneSight charitable clinic, volunteers will begin to prepare for their clinic experience through a mixture of informational online calls, trip planning, and team building activities. OneSight Clinic Managers will help guide all volunteers through the clinic process and get team members excited about the experience that lies ahead. 

Once the clinic is nearing its start date, volunteers will arrive at the site ahead of time to help in setting up the clinic stations. Together, we’ll transform temporary spaces into a fully functioning clinic that’s well-equipped to inspire and impact the patients that walk through its doors.

04. The Clinic Experience
For volunteers, the OneSight clinic experience is difficult to fully describe. Each clinic is uniquely its own, forging newfound energy, connections, and memories that cannot be replicated. However, every clinic – no matter its challenges or successes – is sure to leave every volunteer different than how they entered the experience. 

Whether changed by a conversation with a fellow volunteer, the genuinity of a patient’s hug, or the compellingness of a person’s story, it’s unlikely that a person will leave a OneSight clinic without a different outlook on the world. Above all else, volunteers enter the clinic experience as colleagues or sometimes strangers, but leave as a united team and a forever member of the OneSight family.

05. Closing
Goodbyes are never easy, and at the close of OneSight clinics they can be extra hard. Many volunteers have traveled long distances and live miles or oceans away from one another. Others are neighbors who may not have otherwise known each other. Though volunteers will be bound to one another from this experience for a lifetime, the closing of a clinic is one full of emotion that leaves countless volunteers itching for their next OneSight experience.

“It’s a unique experience and something I never take for granted. This photo of me in a team huddle when I was a clinic leader in Peru in 2017 sums up what being part of a OneSight team is all about.


I have been involved with OneSight for a number of years now, with clinics overseas and quite a number here in Australia. For me being a part of OneSight is a privilege whether it is at school, homeless centres, or overseas. What I always find to be incredible is how a group of people you have never met before come together to do something extraordinary as a team and make a difference for other people.”
– Martin Holmes, OneSight Volunteer of 16 years

To all those who have served as a OneSight volunteer, thank you. Together, we’re helping the world see. Learn more about how you can get involved at www.onesight.org/act .