Vision Care Team Goes to San Carlos, Bolivia!
Blog vol 3. 26. Vision Care Team Goes to San Carlos, Bolivia!
In February 2020, Medical Ministry International (MMI) went on a Vision Care mission to Bolivia returning March 6, 2020. With the onset of Covid -19 and the uncertainties that arose, it wasn’t until the past month that a Vision Team could set up a full clinic in San Carlos, Bolivia. Two and a half years is a long time, for the people of Bolivia and for MMI. While there providing care, Barb Skinner, optician and former MMI Canada president, dispensed a pair of glasses from Burlington Eyecare, which she captured on her phone.
Valuable work is done on these two-week missions. Barb reported that MMI had a team of 42 people, 31 Canadians and Americans, 10 Bolivians, and one Paraguayan. They were there from October 22 to November 5. The team served 1536 patients, of which 1423 were adults and 113 were children.
As the picture shows, one of the many pairs of glasses donated by our patients at Burlington Eyecare in 2019 was part of a shipment to Bolivia and was finally dispensed to a patient on November 2, 2022. This pair has a Burlington Eyecare case (with our old address) so its source is easy to identify; of course not all glasses are so easy to place.
All totalled, 1374 pairs of glasses were dispensed during the two weeks. Wow!
It all starts with the donation of glasses, your glasses right here in Burlington, which we package in plastic bags to help preserve them. The local Lion’s Club picks up the donations when they start to overflow and delivers them to MMI’s office in Hamilton. From there, they are sorted and verified, with the prescription catalogued in a database. This database with all the glasses is then shipped to the country hosting the next clinic, and the patients receive the closest match in prescription in a frame that works for them.
The Vision Care team also provides eye surgery. 112 patients received surgery: 75 cataract and 17 strabismus. Imagine the logistics of setting up a surgical ward and taking on that kind of volume.
MMI sends a shout-out to Burlington Eyecare and our patients for our support of their work to bring eye care for lasting change in people’s lives. We at Burlington Eyecare also are raising funds towards equipping the eye clinic on the Amazon Hospital Boat, the Mau Ipata, which is scheduled to launch in the spring of 2023. We are currently at 32% of our target!! (See campaign here). Thank you to all who have supported this effort.
When you come in to see us at Burlington Eyecare, bring in your used eyeglasses, you can make a real difference in someone’s life. If you are interested in volunteering for a two-week clinic, the next vision care missions are January 2023 in Colombia and May 2023 in Rwanda. You can look for upcoming projects here.
Thank you to all,
til next week,
the good doctor
