More than 1 billion people in developing countries need eyeglasses and cannot afford them, according to the organization Unite for Sight. But in America consumers dispose of more than 4 million pairs of eyeglasses a year.

Some Northwestern students are working to eliminate that disparity.

A student chapter of Unite for Sight, an organization aimed at improving eye health and eradicating preventable blindness, applied for Associated Student Group recognition on Monday.

The group will conduct eyeglass drives on campus and send them to needy populations abroad. It also will conduct a medical textbook drive and provide free vision screenings for local communities, said Michelle Ha, president and founder of the NU chapter.

“We’d go into underserved places in and around Evanston and provide vision screenings for people at homeless shelters and food kitchens,” said Ha, a Weinberg junior.

Vision screenings help detect problems that would lead to eye disease or blindness. Unite for Sight, a student-run organization, has about 70 college chapters nationwide, as well as chapters in countries such as Nepal, Canada and Rwanda.

Ha discovered the organization while searching for opthamology internship opportunities. Unite for Sight also has student chapters at University of Chicago and Loyola University.

“I think it would be a really good way for more premed students to get involved in public health, and also it’s involved with vision education and research,” Ha said.

The group was founded at Harvard University in 2000 and is growing rapidly, said Sachin Jain, the Midwest director for Unite for Sight and a medical student at Rush University in Chicago.

“A lot of it is really word of mouth,” he said. “It’s grown so much that everyone wants to open a chapter at their school right now.”

Along with collecting eyeglasses, providing education and giving vision screenings, Jain said, student chapters can expand their efforts abroad — he helped develop vision treatment programs in Tanzania last summer.

“It seemed like one little piece of the puzzle was getting left out and getting neglected by health providers because they thought the patients they served had more pressing medical issues,” Jain said. “It was like glasses were at the bottom of the totem pole.”

Students interested in joining the group don’t need experience because members will take an online course to learn to conduct screenings, Ha said. As of Monday the group had 20 members.

“I have some people who are really interested in opthamology, and then we have other people who are really interested because they thought it sounded like a great organization or because they wanted some public health experience,” Ha said.

Reach Tina Peng at [email protected].