Upcoming & Past Events

2023 The Optical Foundation Early Career Award. Congratulations to Dr. Philipa Asantewaa Larbi for winning the 2023 The Optical Foundation Early Career Award for Outstanding Contributions in the Field of Optometry Philipa's journey began as a student at the Department...

2021 TOF Global Summit at BCLA. The Optical Foundation’s Global Summit at BCLA 2021. With the absence of an in person conference, we were left with no platform in which to celebrate the upcoming BCLA Virtual Clinical Conference & Exhibition, and provide public...

2021 Frans Oosterhof Conference Grant – BCLA, UK. In the grips of a global pandemic with social distancing and international travel restricted, the world has shown its strength in resilience and creativity. New opportunities have arisen in the face of these obstacles,...

2020 Volk Lens for Frans Oosterhof Travel Grant Winners. Volk Lens 90D alternative prize for The Optical Foundation’s 2020 Frans Oosterhof Travel Grant winners In January 2020 we were excited to announce the two winners of The Optical Foundation’s Frans Oosterhof...

2020 Virtual American Academy of Optometry Conference. American Academy of Optometry 2020 Virtual Conference With the global COVID-19 pandemic and international travel suspended, in person conferences converted to virtual conferences. While in most recent years only...

2020 TOF Global Summit at American Academy of Optometry. The Optical Foundation’s Global Summit at American Academy of Optometry 2020 In making it possible for all level 500 Optometry students from both Universities in Ghana to attend the American Academy of Optometry...

2020 Frans Oosterhof Travel Grant – NCC, The Netherlands The Optical Foundation’s 2020 Frans Oosterhof Travel Grant to attend the 2020 Netherlands Contact Lens Congress (NCC) in Veldhoven, Netherlands was awarded to: Miss Asantewa Aboagye MacCarthy a level 500...

2019 Frans Oosterhof Travel Grant – BCLA, UK The Optical Foundation’s 2019 Frans Oosterhof Travel Grant to attend the 2019 BCLA Conference in Manchester, UK was awarded to: Miss Nutifafa Esther Senanu a level 500 Optometry student at Kwame Nkrumah University of...

2019 Lecturing Tour Prof Eric Papas and Esma Aygun – Ghana After a successful lecturing tour by Professor Eric Papas in 2015, in 2019 we expanded the lecturing tour and sent two lecturers to Ghana: Professor Eric Papas and Esma Aygun.Eric Papas is a Professor in the...

2018 Outreach Eye Screenings – Jachie, Ghana Outreach Screening Project Our two volunteers on this project were Iris de Jong, an optometrist, and Ellen Blom, an orthoptist. This was Iris’ first mission. Ellen on the other hand is a seasoned volunteer who has worked on...

2017 World Sight Day Screening – Opa-locka, Florida In July 2017, our chair, Carolina Kunnen and videographer/photographer Rens Bais teamed up with Our Children’s Vision, Major League Baseball Players Trust and KaBOOM! in Opa-locka, Florida, as part of the community...

2017 Eye Screenings Collaboration – Jachie, Ghana Diverting a project due to political unrest The Optical Foundation was all geared up for its first project in Gambia which, as one of the poorest countries in Africa, has an extreme shortage of eye care...

2016 Frans Oosterhof Travel Grant – TFOS France The 2016 Optical Foundation Frans Oosterhof Travel Grant was awarded to Acheampong Oppong, who attended the Tear Film and Ocular Surface Conference in Montpellier, France. Acheampong is a student at the Kwame Nkrumah...

2016 World Sight Day Screening – Gary, Indiana Our chair, Carolina Kunnen, travelled to Indiana to provide free vision tests to elementary school students and youth baseball players from Gary, Indiana for World Sight Day 2016. The vision event was a collaborative...

Early December 2015, The Optical Foundation and the University of Cape Coast (UCC) teamed up for another collaborative screening project in Essiam. Organized by Francis Wiredu one of UCC's students, this two day screening gave 11 optometry students the opportunity to...

2015 Lecturing Tour Prof Eric Papas – Ghana One of the highlights of 2015 was the Lecturing Tour that The Optical Foundation organized. We invited Professor Eric Papas to present at two universities (University of Cape Coast and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and...

2014 Seminar Carolina Kunnen – Cape Coast, Ghana Seminar CarolinaOur chairman, Carolina Kunnen, visited Ghana in October 2014 to give a seminar on her PhD research ‘the influence of the influence of Meibomian gland morphology and function on ocular comfort’. The...

2011 Comprehensive Eye Exams – Cape Coast, Ghana New volunteer in GhanaFrom the July 10th to August 1st of 2011, Esma was sent to Ghana on behalf of The Optical Foundation to continue the Glasshopper project. Esma is a Dutch orthoptist and lecturer at the University...

2008 Comprehensive Eye Exams – Cape Coast, Ghana Return to GhanaAfter a very successful deployment in May 2007, Carolina returned to Ghana in November 2008 for three weeks. During her 2007 Ghana visit, Carolina didn’t have enough time to examine all the children at...

2007 Comprehensive Eye Exams – Cape Coast, Ghana BeginningOn February 10th 2007, as volunteer Carolina Kunnen setoff to Ghana to establish the first project of The Optical Foundation. Fellow board member Huub Villevoye accompanied her for first two weeks, so they...