Improve Vision Health for 1,000 Hondurans

Dear Friends of VHI. Please join VHI in celebrating Mother's Day with a Mother's Day Story.

Portrerillos, Honduras is about an hour and a half from VHI's home base in La Entrada. Navigation to the village required crossing three small streams, one of which forced us to exit the van and walk over a "bridge" that was not, so we were told, up to the task of bearing the weight of a four-wheeled vehicle; the van forded the stream with only minor difficulty.

Seventy-five patients were waiting for us when we arrived in Portrerillos; more would soon follow. And it became immediately apparant that most of the adults and kids in this small and remote village had not received any vision health care.

We set up shop in one of the classrooms at the local school. Patients of all ages filed in, one at a time. Many were provided eyeglasses and sunglasses; a few required more attention. One, a young mother of 23, was diabetic and blind with cataracts. But when asked if she would come to the Manos Amigas clinic in La Entrada for surgery on that Thursday, a look of worry came over her face.

"I can't afford surgery," she said, "and I can't leave my baby." A friend had accompanied the woman, who's name we learned was Reina. The friend advised, "Reina, it won't cost you anything. You can't afford to not have the surgery." Dr. O'Rourke, a mother of two, had examined Reina. The doctor offered, "If you have the surgery, I'll take care of your baby." Reina relented and agreed to have the surgery, though the doctor was spared the babysitting chores.

Senora Reina made it to the clinic for cataract surgery on Thursday, as scheduled, and she was waiting for us when we arrived for post-op rounds on Friday morning. Grandma was taking care of the baby, and Reina's husband, whose grin reminded me of a boy unable to control himself on Christmas morning, sat by her side. Reina did not look happy; she was nervous.

Dr. O'Rourke removed the patch and shield and Dr. Chang, the surgeon and a mother herself, moved closer to examine the patient. Reina blinked a few times and then smiled, an expression we hadn't seen from her in the few days we'd known her. And then came the tears. No sobbing mind you, just enough emotion to let us know that Reina was OK. She had regained her sight. Though we can't be sure, as she never said as much, it's very possible that at that very special moment, this young mother realized that when she returned home later that day, she would be able to see her baby...for the first time.

Dear Friends and Supporters,

Vision Health International (VHI) is very excited to announce our upcoming field program to Honduras. During the week of April 7 - 15, 2018 twenty-five dedicated and generous VHI volunteers will make their way back to the Manos Amigas clinic in La Entrada and take up, once again, the important work of improving and restoring the gift of sight for thousands of patients in this medically underserved region of the country.

For our program volunteers it will be a very busy week. An eye clinic team is scheduled to travel to at least five villages in the countryside--an hour, sometimes two, outside of La Entrada--in order to provide complete eye exams, diagnose pathology, fit and/or prescribe eyeglasses, and dispense sunglasses for hundreds of adults and children each day. As we like to say, "if the patients can't come to us, we'll go to them." Were it not for these outreach clinics, hundreds of patients would not have received the care they so urgently required. At our host facilities in La Entrada our surgical teams will perform cataract surgery and pediatric strabismus surgery for dozens of adults and kids who have been waiting, expenctantly but patiently, to receive these sight restoring and life altering procedures for many months, if not years.

And please know your generosity and your ongoing support will make this all possible. Your donations will play a crucial role in helping VHI provide hundreds of adults and kids with not only much needed vision care, but with renewed hope for a better and brighter future. Just like Senor Ramirez, a farmer who lost his vision to cataracts, but now, following successful surgery, is able to tend his fields and support his family. Or like Diana, who suffers from a multitude of optic maladies, but who, with ongoing care and generosity from many people and places, is provided hope that her sight may one day be restored. Or then, there's Margi, who only a year ago had resigned herself to a life without education, but who recently has returned to school, able to read with her very special prescription eyeglasses. For each of these remarkable and heart warming stories there are dozens more. Thanks to you.

Please follow VHI on Facebook during the week of April 7-15 and watch how one small group of very special people can help make a real and lasting difference in the lives of so many.