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BRINGING FREE VISION SERVICES TO THE RURAL POOR IN THE PHILIPPINES
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 free eye examinations, free medications, free eyeglasses and provides free eye surgeries. 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 free 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 next Medical Vision Mission will be from December 23, 2008 through January 14, 2009. The Mission will be in the Province of Iloilo Island. The mobile clinic will be put on a ferry from Negros Island. The foundation will travel to 6 different remote areas and plans to treat around 2,000 indigents. It will truly be "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 separated by so many remote islands (7,107 Islands) and about 900 are inhabitable. Only the larger islands have access to health care and vision care. The poor people that live outside of the 5 larger islands can only get treatment by taking a ferry boat to one of the larger islands. That is the beauty of having a self contained "Eye Clinic on Wheels" We can ferry the 40 foot 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 recycled eyeglasses. Most of these people we can find a pair of eyeglasses that is very close to what they need. 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 and other philanthropic foundations to help it with its projects. BULLETIN! 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 40 years and she is his optometric assistant. They practice in Aberdeen, Washington. Dr. Jim has led Christian vision 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 participated in all 8 medical vision missions to the Philippines and are preparing for the upcoming mission in December 2008 through January 2009 and their June 2009 Medical Vision Mission. They met in the mission field in the Philippines and they have both committed themselves to continuing there in the vision mission field. With all other international vision missions, there are limits as to weight and the amount of supplies that can accompany 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 all of the supplies and instruments, even the high tech instruments, already in the Philippines. Eye professionals fly in, they don't have to ship all of the supplies or instruments with them, stay in Housing that the foundation has located for the Volunteers. They then get transported to and from the mobile vision clinic that are in the rural areas. The indigents have already been prescreened as to economic status for eligibility. They are able to volunteer their precious skills to help the poor people and then return home.
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