EYEsee News
EYEsee conducts workshop for student leaders of area schools in the northwest suburbs.
Friday, January 29, 2010
EYEsee held a planning workshop for student leaders of area schools in the northwest suburbs at Saint Viator High School on January 25, 2010. This workshop was a new initiative by EYEsee, and was part of the kick-off activities for the roll out of EYEsee's 2010 Annual Used Eyeglasses Campaign. What started this program were requests from several student leaders of surrounding elementary schools who wished to be involved with EYEsee's mission by holding their own collection drive in their school. Mrs. JoAnne Francis, Director of Student Affairs at Saint Viator High School, paved the way for this program to be started at Saint Viator after presenting the idea to elementary school principals during her November meeting and receiving their positive response.
Student leaders from five elementary schools and a high school, along with their teachers and parents, attended the two-hour workshop. EYEsee founder Janice Guzon led the presentations and discussions on EYEsee's mission, organization, partners and past and present activities. Founding member Hannah Tibbetts produced a video for this workshop that gave participants the 'experience' of medical missions to some of the poorest areas of the world and where EYEsee is making a real difference in the lives of the poor. Mr. Tom Nall, EYEsee moderator, offered the framework of EYEsee's mission and work. Participants received EYEsee's playbook on how to run a successful used eyeglasses collection drive at the end of the workshop.
EYEsee acknowledges the participation of the following schools to this workshop: St. James Elementary School, St. Emily Elementary School, St. Zachary Elementary School, St. Thomas of Villanova Elementary School, Our Lady of Wayside Elementary School and Stevenson High School.
EYEsee supports January 11-20, 2010 medical mission to Negros Occidental Island in the Philippines
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Dr. Jim Weyrich, Founder and President of EyeCare WeCare Foundation, Inc., reports on the foundation's January 11-20, 2010 medical mission to the remote village of Calumangan, Negros Occidental Island, Philippines. The foundation's 'Clinic on Wheels' reaches patients in rural Philippines.
In December 2009, the foundation received a grant from Transitions Health Sight for Life Fund. Heavy duty springs and a stiffer suspension was added to the bus along with new brakes. Now it can clear boulders in the road that it could not clear before the suspension upgrade. By bringing the clinic to the remotest Barangays, the people who benefited the most were those who never had a pair of eyeglasses. A total of 1,769 rural poor underserved people benefitted from this mission. Among them, 133 people received free eye medications and 74 people were referred for cataract and pterygium surgery. There were 10 different venues during this medical vision mission all over Negros Occidental, ranging from Silay City, Bago City to the Town of Villadolid. The foundation has now provided 11,088 people with free eyeglasses since its first vision mission in 2005.
One of the thousands of patients named Helen Tambanillo had a neighbor helped led her to the venue at Purok Riverside, Barangay Tabunan, Bago City. She has been blind all of her life. On January 11, 2010, her life changed when she arrived at the big blue bus of hope. She was found to be a (minus) 18.50 diopter myope. That means, without correction, she is over nine times legally blind. When the doctor put a pair of trial lenses on her, she did not want to give them back. She was assured that she didn't want the trial frames and lenses, and that she has to have her own. When she received her new glasses and her vision was restored, all she could do was to cry. She cried for over 2 hours, she had all the volunteers, all of the indigents in line and even our bus driver crying like babies. To watch and listen to her description on what she was seeing, you would have had to have been there to capture the entire moment.
During the very last day of the mission, near the very end of the line, was a very pretty high school senior that never had a pair of glasses, and she was found to be a (minus) 7.00 myope. This means that what a normal person sees at 700 feet, she has to get up to 20 feet to see. Her vision problem was not as bad as Helen had, but the pair of eyeglasses she received is going to make a huge impact on her life and her future as well.
These are just two of the 1,769 people who by themselves were worth of all the efforts of entire medical eye mission. There are another 1,767 stories that we cannot one by one tell anymore. These are people who cannot even afford the transportation expense to see an eye doctor, let alone pay for the eye examination and certainly for frames and lenses. There were many medications given and some would have cost upwards of $100 per bottle. That would be over two months of wages for a family of five or more. Over 200 bottles of eye medication were dispensed to people with eye infections, glaucoma, eye allergies and eye inflammations. There were 83 people who were referred for cataract surgeries which will be done later by our partner "Resources for the Blind, Inc."
The nine days of clinic were long and grueling, but you hear no complaints from any of the Filipino volunteers. Most of them have accompanied the foundation on all of its missions. They know how to unpack the bus, set up for registration, pre-testing and dispensing of the eyeglasses. They have witnessed the gratitude of the recipients of the free eye services.
I really want to thank EYEsee for your donation last year that enabled us to get new tires for the bus and also the eyeglasses that you collected. We welcome all the recycled glasses that you want to send. It is our lifeline. We value our partnership with your organization. May God bless each and every one of you.
Sincerely,
James H. Weyrich, O.D.
Founder & President
For additional info about EyeCare WeCare Foundation, Inc., visit www.eyecarewecare.org.
EYEsee sets to support medical mission to the Republic of Uganda in Spring 2010.
Friday, January 8, 2010
The following is a letter from Pam Blandchard and Sheri Jones, congregational nurses of Apples Chapel Christian Church in Gibsonville, North Carolina. Each year a team of healthcare professional and lay people from this church conducts a medical mission to the African country of Uganda. This year they have scheduled their medical mission in May, and EYEsee is supporting their mission.
The mission trip last year was coordinated through Christ Community Church in Greensboro, North Carolina. It was a medical mission trip and consisted of 12 people. We had 5 nurses, a pharmacist and some lay people. We provided 6 days of medical clinics treating various medical conditions such as malaria, arthritis, childhood ear infections, HIV, syphilis, pneumonia and tooth abscess. We sent 3 babies to the hospital the first day and know that these children would have died had it not been for our clinic. We saw 300 people the first day and close to 1,000 in the 6 days we had clinic. The orphanage we worked at was Good Shepherd's Fold in Jinja, Uganda.
Last year we were able to take about 30 glasses that were donated to us from a local Food Lion. They were magnifier reading glasses and were given out within the first 2 days. The one story that stands out in my mind the most is an older gentleman that came in with the chief complaint that couldn't read his Bible. We were able to give him a pair of the reader glasses and he was excited to be able to read his Bible again. Unfortunately there were many we had to send away still unable to see or read as we ran out of glasses. We had a few older glasses donated by church members but these were not useful. I had to turn away a young mother about 24 years old who was obviously nearsighted as she could not see far away when tested but we had no means to provide her with any glasses. These people walk several miles from their villages to come to these clinics and we want to be able to provide as much help as possible while we are there.
We would greatly appreciate any help you can provide us. I am enclosing some pictures from the trip of the orphanage, the missionaries and the people who went on the trip.
Sincerely,
Pam Blandchard, RN and Sheri Jones, RN
Congregational Nurses
Apples Chapel Christian Church
For additional info about Apples Chapel Christian Church, contact (336) 656-9853 or mail 7345 HWY 61 N, Gibsonville, NC 27249.
Eyesee Supports Physicians For Peace’s Various Medical Missions In 2010
Physicians for Peace is an international non-profit organization that mobilizes volunteer healthcare professionals to assist developing nations with unmet medical needs and scarce resources. Through effective, hands-on medical education and training, clinical care and donated medical supplies, Physicians for Peace develops long-term, sustainable, replicable, and evidence-based programs to help partner nations build medical capability and capacity to help themselves. Since 1989 volunteers have conducted medical missions in more than 60 countries. With its headquarters in Norfolk, Va., Physicians for Peace has programs in 22 countries and offices in the Philippines and the Dominican Republic.
In the developing world, faced with a dire crisis in health care, access to vision care and treatment is often a low priority. Yet in most cases, a standard vision exam and access to prescription glasses is all that is needed for a patient to see clearly, often for the first time in his or her life.
Through Physicians for Peace’s Seeing Clearly program, local eye care professionals are properly equipped and trained to provide comprehensive eye exams to underserved populations, where access to vision care and treatment is often a low priority. Patients then receive either appropriate medical treatment or a pair of donated prescription glasses.
In 2010, EYEsee donated 3,000 used eyeglasses to the Seeing Clearly so that it can continue to meet the vision needs of countries with scarce resources and great medical demand.
EYEsee Supports May 24 to 28, 2010 medical mission to the Macabebe City, Province of Pampanga in the Philippines
Dr. Jim Weyrich, Founder and President of EyeCare WeCare Foundation, Inc., reports on the foundation's 11th mission to the Philippines on May 24 to 28, 2010 in Macabebe City in the Province of Pampanga north of Manila. The foundation's 'Clinic on Wheels' reaches patients in rural Philippines. EYEsee has supported EyeCare WeCare’s missions to the Philippines with a donation of 2,000 recycled eyeglasses this year.
This was our 11th mission to the Philippines, and no doubt the most challenging medical vision mission ever for EyeCare WeCare Foundation and its 25 volunteers. During this mission, we crossed many islands by transporting EyeCare WeCare’s Clinic on Wheels in a ferry boat from the Visayas to the Luzon region. Together with 25 Filipino volunteers, we traveled more than 24 hours of land and sea combine.
The getting to the Luzon was one of the biggest obstacles that the Foundation has ever encountered. The quote that we received from the Super Ferry was nearly $10,000 US dollars round trip to transport the mobile clinic from Bacolod to Manila (Over 500 Nautical Miles) and the 25 volunteers. We considered crossing three large islands and taking three small ferry boats each way that probably take over 2 days and would be very hard on the mobile clinic to cross the mountainous Islands. It would be considerably less to do so somewhere in the $3,500 range figuring there were no repairs. We appealed to the Philippine Coast Guard to transport it for us. We are a 100% voluntary organization and operate on a small budget. At the very last minute (we are talking about 48 hours before we left), Negros Navigation informed us that It would help sponsor this medical mission and didn't offer to do it free, but it reduced the fare immensely and even surprised us by presenting a banner to the Foundation while we were waiting to board the Giant ferry boat.
We left Bacolod at 7:00 PM on May 23, 2010 and arrived in Manila at 6:00PM the mobile clinic was unloaded, we survived rush hour traffic in Manila and finally arrived in Macabebe around 9 PM. The mobile clinic was parked at the clinic site and the volunteers were taken to their great accommodations with Susan Bautista Damilao's family. The next 5 days would become historic. The fact that we were in on venue for 5 full days, we did not need to set up the mobile clinic each morning and tear down and move that night. It gave us as much as 3 hours more of clinic. The lunches our volunteers and the local volunteers were served at a Church next door. The meals provided the volunteers with energy to see around 300 patients per day. The meals and lodging for 5 days for 25 volunteers was also a very large undertaking. Susan Bautista Damilao was up for the task and exceeded all expectations. The Foundation and its volunteers are extremely grateful for the unbelievable hospitality and expense that the Damilao's provided EyeCare WeCare Foundation during the stay and the day following the medical mission.
A total of 1,411 patients received eyeglasses during this mission. We had lots of pictures that tell their own story. With every single medical vision mission there are several persons that are worth the complete trip in themselves and this medical mission was no different. The young man below came in one late afternoon and he was found to have around a -9.00 correction both eyes. I asked him where his previous glasses were, he replied that he had never seen an eye doctor because his parents were poor. He tried attending school, but never completed the first grade because he could not see anything that the teacher put on the board even if he sat in the front. The pictures of him before and after speak for themselves.
We made two trips to the Philippines this year, on January 11-20, 2010 (1,769 indigents received eyeglasses) and on May 24-28, 2010 (1,411 indigents received eyeglasses), bringing the Foundation’s total beneficiaries to 13,910 indigents for the last five years.
2010 Used Eyeglasses Collection Campaign nets nearly 7,500 eyeglasses.
2010 marks EYEsee’s second annual collection campaign in the Chicago-area, beginning January 30 and running through June 20. EYEsee founder Janice Guzon stated that the goals of the 2010 campaign are to support this year’s medical missions to the poor in the Philippines, Honduras, Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Haiti. This year EYEsee is also supporting a medical mission to Uganda.
In leading the roll-out of the 2010 campaign, Janice Guzon pointed out that this year’s campaign expands last year’s efforts with the addition of area Catholic elementary schools, optical clinics, campus ministry and Boy Scout projects to area churches and senior homes.
The campaign stretched to 20 weeks, including a two-week kick-off drive at Saint Viator in January. Thirty-eight Saint Viator students volunteered during weekend collection drives at 16 area churches. They manned EYEsee’s display table, passed out literature, answered questions from the public and received eyeglasses donations. Over 470 service hours were logged during this campaign. EYEsee volunteer service was acknowledged during worship announcements and priest homilies.
Sue Geegan, Director of Service, Justice & Peace at Holy Family Church adopted the 2010 campaign to the parish’s Lenten mission, enabling parishioners to donate eyeglasses throughout Lent. A total of 706 eyeglasses were collected.
Paula Irving of The Garlands of Barrington arranged another collection drive this year at the Garlands of Barrington senior home. Susan DeLano of the Geneva Foundation of Presbyterian Homes tied EYEsee’s week-long collection drive for the residents of The Moorings (Arlington Heights) to their ‘Earth Week’ celebration. A total of 163 eyeglasses were collected from these two senior homes.
Student councils of St. Emily Catholic School (Mt. Prospect), St. James Catholic School (Arlington Heights) and St. Thomas of Villanova Catholic School (Palatine) conducted their own collection drive in their schools and communities. They donated a combined total of 690 eyeglasses to EYEsee.
Suburban Associates of Ophthalmology (Arlington Heights) and the Clinic of Dr. David J. Tabak (Barrington) received donations of eyeglasses at their locations. A total of 389 eyeglasses were received from these clinics.
Northwestern University’s campus ministry opened its Sheil Catholic Center for a week-long collection drive in May. Chaplain Father John Kartje and Campus Minister Beth Knobbe warmly received EYEsee volunteers at their center.
Two Boy Scouts signed up to do eyeglasses collection as a project towards their Eagle Scout rank. Nick Sillchuck of St. Cecilia Parish (Mt. Prospect) and Mitch Morton of Buffalo Grove High School collected more than 160 eyeglasses.
2010 campaign received a significant boost from three large donations to EYEsee. Mr. Thomas Longeway, President of Classic Sunglasses in Barrington donated 700 sunglasses. The Office of Thomas Dart, Sheriff of Cook County (Illinois) donated 200 eyeglasses. Dr. Mildred Olivier, an award-winning glaucoma specialist and a Sacred Heart alumna handed more than 225 eyeglasses to Janice Guzon.
EYEsee also received over 150 eyeglasses from private and anonymous donors. The donations followed local media publicity about this year’s campaign. A feature article about EYEsee in the National Enquirer gave the 2010 campaign national exposure. Donations were dropped off at Saint Viator High School or mailed directly to the school.
A thank-you note sent with eyeglasses to Saint Viator student and EYEsee leader Chris Santucci sums up EYEsee’s work and mission: “Thank you for donating your free time to this cause. It is great to see young people giving back to their communities and helping others around the world who are less fortunate…”
EYEsee supports May 8-22, 2010 medical mission to Jinja, Republic of Uganda
The following is a letter from Pam Blanchard and the Good Shepherd’s Fold team on their May 8-22, 2010 mission trip to the Good Shepherd’s Fold Orphanage in Jinja, Uganda, East Africa. This medical mission was an outreach project by the Apples Chapel Christian Church in Gibsonville, North Carolina, and EYEsee supported it.
Dear Ms. Guzon and all the volunteers at EYEsee,
I wanted to write and express appreciation for the glasses we received and were able to take on our trip to Uganda in May. It was a very successful trip. We had three doctors, one a pediatrician which blessed the orphanage dearly as she was able to provide checkups to the 98 children who reside there. We also had three nurses and three lay people.
We arrived in Uganda 24 hours after we started our trip and were quite exhausted so the beds at our guest house were very welcomed. It is a three hour trip from the airport to Good Shepherd’s Fold Orphanage and we arrived to a grand welcome of singing, dancing, and many hugs all around. It takes a couple days to sort thru all the supplies, pick up new medicine in Jinja Africa and to arrange the church into a clinic. We had four days of clinic, we started on Wednesday and work 12 hours that day and the following Thursday and ten hours on Friday. Thankfully we had two days over the weekend to recover and to worship and share time with our missionary friends. Monday was our last day and when it was all said and done we had treated almost 1,100 men, women and children.
The glasses were a great success and desperately needed. We had purchased 50 different strength reading glasses and they were all gone within two days. The glasses your team donated were a little more complicated to hand out as we did not know the strengths of the glasses or the strength of the glasses each person needed. However the African people are very accommodating and appreciative of anything they get so they patiently tried on glasses until they found a pair that worked. The enclosed pictures show a young woman who came last year and we did not have any glasses that worked for her so it was a blessing this year for her to be able to leave wearing glasses in which she could see off into the distance.
We take so much for granted in the United States. We cannot see so we make an appointment with the eye doctor and within a few weeks we have glasses and our life goes on. The sunglasses were also a very welcomed relief as we had many older people with cataracts and the sun is very strong there so they would often get headaches and eye pain. We handed out all the sunglasses within a few days. All the glasses were left in the clinic at GSF and the nurse there will continue to hand them out over the next few years.
The enclosed pictures show some of the people who received glasses, the church where we have our clinics and some of the people who came and were seen. I would have liked to have gotten more pictures of people with their glasses but as you can see it was quite busy and left little time for picture taking.
Again I and the team and all the people at GSF wish to express our thanks to your group for collecting and distributing the glasses. Everyone deserves to be able to see as clearly as possible.
Sincerely,
Pam Blanchard and the GSF team
For additional info about Apples Chapel Christian Church, contact (336) 656-9853 or mail 7345 HWY 61 N, Gibsonville, NC 27249.
EYEsee supports June 22-29, 2010 medical mission to Campamento, Honduras
July 25, 2010
St. Philip Benizi Catholic Church in Jonesboro, GA, has a ‘sister’ relationship with Santa Ana Catholic Church in Campamento, Honduras. They have been conducting an annual medical mission to Santa Ana in the last 13 years. EYEsee was one of the three organizations that supported their 14th mission to Santa Ana parish this year. Below is an excerpt of the mission report by Willie Cowan of the Santa Ana Committee.
We distributed a little over 600 pairs of reading glasses during our visit. These reading glasses were sized and handed directly by our pilgrims to people in remote and impoverished communities served by the Santa Ana parish−most Hondurans in this area are very poor. We obtained over 500 pairs of reading glasses from three charities: 200 pairs from NW Lions Eyeglass Recycling Center, 250 pairs from New Eyes for the Needy, and 261 pairs from EYEsee - Vision for the World. An additional 150+ pairs of reading glasses were donated by St. Philip’s parishioners. We took these reading glasses with us every where we visited−villages, small towns, communities, ‘spot in the road’, as well as a local senior’s center. We would find a convenient spot and set up our reading glasses distribution point−sometimes inside a chapel or other building and sometimes outdoors. We used a modified hand-held chart, converted into Spanish with numbers and symbols, to assess our ‘patients’ needs. Some of our pilgrims spoke Spanish and we were augmented by several Santa Ana church members. We formally set up shop thirteen times. As word got out, we also distributed reading glasses from our lodging area on the Santa Ana church property.
This was a grace filled experience for all– pilgrims and locals. We were amazed when we were welcomed and joined by the communities during the many different activities in which we participated. The language barrier was not a problem—smiles are understood in any language. Pilgrims enjoyed the beautiful people, gorgeous scenery, time spent with fellow pilgrims and the local community, as well as tours of the local community, surrounding towns and landmarks. We attended worship at the church and in community chapels, we told stories, and enjoyed the smiles and love of new brothers and sisters. We saw a lifestyle very different from our own, yet realized just how similar our lives really are—our fears and concerns, our hopes and dreams, and the importance of relationships. Being part of this visit was definitely a life-changing experience.
To each of our reading glasses donors, thanks again for your support and may God bless you for your ministry and your generosity.
Student Council of St. Thomas of Villanova School Donates 209 Eyeglasses to EYEsee.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
The Student Council of St. Thomas of Villanova School in Palatine, IL, led a two-month used eyeglasses collection drive in their school and parish on behalf of EYEsee. Norma's Coffee Shop also contributed to the collection drive. On Tuesday, April 6, 2010, the students dropped off two cases of 255 eyeglasses and 93 glass cases at Saint Viator. EYEsee gratefully acknowledges their donations.
Student leaders from several area elementary schools contacted Saint Viator High School late last year stating their desire to assist EYEsee with its mission for the world's poor. In response to their request and to help their collection effort, EYEsee held a planning workshop at Saint Viator High School on January 25, 2010 for student leaders from St. James Elementary School, St. Emily Elementary School, St. Zachary Elementary School, St. Thomas of Villanova Elementary School, and Our Lady of the Wayside Elementary School.