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Eyecare Wecare Foundation, Inc.; based in the United States; registered 501 (c) (3) not for profit; Christian centered; international organization; that does medical vision missions and provides eye examinations ; eye and general medications; eyeglasses and provides for eye surgeries all at no cost to the prescreened indigents. The foundation has a branch office in the Philippines that is registered with the Philippine government under SEC (Security Exchange Commission) It is currently conducting all of the vision clinics there. The foundations target population is the rural poor who do not have access to, nor financial resources for, vision services. The foundation has no paid administrators or staff, everyone volunteers. The foundation just finished its second Medical Vision Mission in June 2009. The first medical this year was in January 2009. That particular medical vision mission exceeded all expectations on the Province of Iloilo on Panay Island. The mobile clinic placed on a ferry boat from Negros Island. The foundation, along with twenty three volunteers, traveled to 6 different municipalities (Calinog, Lambunao, Cabatuan, Janiuay, Pavia, and Jaro - Iloilo City.) A record 2,014 Indigents received free examinations, eyeglasses, medications and referrals for eye surgery. We truly were "Delivering Gods Ultimate Vision Plan to the Poor." THE MISSION The Philippines is one of the most challenging countries of the world to provide quality health care because it is separated by so many islands (7,107 Islands) around 1,000 are inhabited. Only the larger islands have access to health care and vision care. The poor people that live outside of the few larger islands can only get treatment by taking public transportation to the ferry boat terminal, take a ferry boat to the port of an island that has an eye doctor. From there, they have to take public transportation from the ferry to the doctors office, pay for the exam and then pay for the glasses. Wait until the glasses are fabricated and then proceed home. Most cannot afford even the first public transportation ride let alone paying for vision services. That is the beauty of having a self contained "Eye Clinic on Wheels" We can ferry the 40 foot converted bus to most of the islands and provide these services to the indigents on the remote islands. The WHO (World Health Organization) lists uncorrected refractive error and the second leading cause of blindness in the world with only cataracts topping the list. This where EyeCare WeCare foundation is helping in a large way. The mobile clinic carries with it on every vision mission over 50,000 pairs of graded recycled eyeglasses. Most of the indigents can have a pair of eyeglasses that is very close to what they need, in a matter of minutes following the examination. However, at times we cannot. That is why an optical lab is needed to make eyeglasses for the difficult prescriptions that cannot be found in the huge inventory of donated eyeglasses. It already has acquired and shipped to the Philippines some lab equipment to edge uncut lenses but it needs surfacing equipment and lens blanks. Another project is to have a small transport bus to take the volunteers and the indigents to and from the mobile clinic . The Foundation wants reach out to the poor people of the world and to restore their vision. The foundation appeals to individuals, civic organizations, religious organizations, fraternal organizations, corporate organizations, Native American Casino's and other philanthropic foundations to help it with its projects.
WHY VOLUNTEER WITH EYECARE WECARE FOUNDATION The foundation was created by it's president Dr James "Jim" H. Weyrich and his wife Ellen. Jim is a practicing optometric physician for 41 years and she is his optometric assistant. Their practice is at Wal*Mart Vision Center, Aberdeen, Washington. Dr. Jim has led Christian vision medical missions to Nicaragua, Honduras, Morocco, Algeria and was participating volunteer on a vision mission to Mexico. He served with the Mercy Ships aboard the Island Mercy for over 6 Months in the Philippines. The Weyrichs have led all 11 medical vision missions to the Philippines and are preparing for the upcoming mission in December 2009/January 2010 Medical Vision Missions on Guimaras Island and the May/June 2010 mission at Pampanga, Manila International vision missions often times have many limitations. There are limits as to weight and the amount of supplies that can be flown in with the teams. The doctors have to ship their supplies with them, sometimes they don't arrive with the volunteers on their flight and the doctors cant start until their instruments arrive. Then the problems of getting supplies through customs both into the country being served and upon the return to the USA is many times a nightmare. Also, because of size and sensitivity of the instruments, many of the High Tech instruments are not practical to ship with the vision missions. EyeCare WeCare Foundation has supplies and instruments, even the high tech instruments, aboard the "Eye Clinic on Wheels" in the Philippines. Volunteer eye professionals need to purchase their tickets, stay in housing that the foundation has located for the them. They then get transported to and from the mobile vision clinic. They are able to volunteer their precious skills to help the poor people and then return home without all of the problem with extra luggage and customs.
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