Purpose of the Organization
Enfoque Ixcán (“Focusing on the Ixcán”) is a non-profit organization which provides eye care and eye health education to a remote jungle region of Guatemala. Over 40% of the people of the Ixcán area need glasses. Almost 5% are blind with cataracts, including children and young adults, not just the elderly.
Enfoque Ixcán History
Guatemala’s Ixcán region, with over 100,000 residents, is located in the northwestern part of the country near the Mexican border. In 1996, while visiting the area, Portland, OR, optometrist Dr. Scott Pike met Pedro Chom, a Mayan subsistence farmer living in the cooperative village of Santa Maria Tzeja.
Pedro was a volunteer “health promoter,” helping his community with basic medical care. But he was close to quitting because he struggled to read medication instructions. Dr. Pike quickly realized the problem was simple: Pedro needed reading glasses, something almost impossible to access in such a remote, impoverished area. The nearest eye doctor was hours away and far too expensive.
Dr. Pike sent Pedro a pair of glasses from Portland, and the following year returned to launch a village eye-care project with Pedro’s help. Enfoque Ixcán, meaning “Focusing on the Ixcán”, was born. Over time, Pedro’s volunteer role grew into a full-time, paid position as the village health facilitator, strengthening healthcare for the entire community.
Eye Health Promoters
History of Eye Care in the Ixcán
Since 1996, Dr. Pike has steadily grown Enfoque Ixcán to bring essential eye care to this highly underserved region. Each year, he and other volunteers and board members traveled to Ixcán to train local eye health promoters Pedro, Felipe Panjoj (2005-2025), Carlos Quinilla (2017-2024), and Roxana Larios (2014-2025). Training covered the basics of eye care, including exams, glasses dispensing, and recognizing eye disease. Since 1996, Dr. Pike has steadily grown Enfoque Ixcán to bring essential eye care to this highly underserved region.
Over time, new equipment and continued training have expanded the promoters’ skills. Together, they have examined more than 7,360 people from over 100 villages, providing glasses from an inventory restocked twice each year.
The Eye Health Promoters worked out of Enfoque Ixcán’s clinic in Playa Grande, the main municipal center of Ixcán. They examined patients six days a week and regularly traveled with patients to Visualiza, an eye clinic five hours away, for needed surgeries. Since 2002, Enfoque Ixcán has funded over 1,368 eye surgeries, including more than 986 cataract surgeries that restored sight for patients.
Felipe Panjoj
Roxana Larios
Education and prevention are also central to the program. The promoters provided sunglasses to protect against UV rays, lubricating eye drops to reduce irritation from smoke and dust, and easy-to-understand brochures, about eyes and eye care, for teachers and community members—helping people of all ages protect their vision.
In 2021, Enfoque Ixcán completed construction on a permanent eye clinic in Playa Grande, the main municipal center of Ixcán. The new clinic created a sustainable future for eye care in Ixcán.
Another big step to increase eye care in the region happened in the summer of 2025 when Enfoque Ixcán partnered with Visualiza to manage the clinic and provide a full-time eye care team including an optometrist. This partnership will also streamline the ability for patients to receive surgeries at one of the Visualiza’s eye hospitals.
Nicolas, Luisa, and Carla
The new Enfoque Ixcán Visualiza eye care team consists of Carla, the optometrist, Luisa, the clinic manager, and Nicolas, the counselor. They will be serving our Ixcán friends 6 days a week, providing prescription glasses and testing for eye health problems. Patients needing surgeries will be taken to the same eye hospital we have been using for several years.