What do a multinational eyewear company, an online snack company and an institute of higher learning have in common? While it seems they couldn’t be further apart, these three organisations joined forces to launch a vision care programme providing 300,000 migrant workers with free eyecare education and reading glasses.

This unlikely alliance was formed by a trio that met at the Company of Good Fellowship, a talent development programme to groom professionals in implementing positive changes in their organisations to benefit both business and society.

Ms Yvonne Siow led the creation of the Migrant Workers Vision Care Programme in October 2020, and collaborated with batchmates from Boxgreen and the Institute of Systems Science at the National University of Singapore (NUS-ISS). Ms Siow is the ASEAN head of the OneSight EssilorLuxottica Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the European eyewear maker, EssilorLuxottica.

As part of the five-month programme created by the National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre, each Fellow develops an action project for their organisation as a way to bring value back to the workplace while applying what was taught in class.

Ms Siow knew what her project would be the moment she joined. The OneSight EssilorLuxottica Foundation had discovered that many migrant workers over 40 suffered from presbyopia, a near vision impairment.

This loss of near-focusing ability caused several problems. Workers struggled to see their phones clearly, causing mental strain as the screen was often their only connection to home. It also...