Enfoque Ixcán and Amigos Eye Care of Pacific University are ready for their 11th joint mission trip to Ixcán, Guatemala. Every year since 2003, the two organizations have delivered eye care to this remote and isolated region of Guatemala. Each year they examine from 700 to 900 people in their 4-day stay.
This year six students from the 2nd and 3rd year optometry classes will make the trip. With them they will have several hundred pairs of glasses and sunglasses and hundreds of eye drops to relieve eye dryness. Enfoque Ixcán will be represented by three doctors and another volunteer from the U.S. In addition, Enfoque Ixcán’s permanent eye health promoters, who live in Ixcán, and a health promoter from a Guatemalan eye clinic will round out the team.
We expect to dispense 300 to 400 pairs of glasses and identify 40 to 50 people who need eye surgeries, mostly cataract surgeries. Later on the eye health promoters will take people to one of the surgery clinics for their surgeries. Enfoque Ixcán has funded over 200 eye surgeries.