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January 11 to 15, 2012, 5 day mission in the Municipalities of Cabarroguis and Maddela in the Province of Quirino sets a new 5 day record of 1,625 disadvantaged Filipinos receiving free vision care, 1,602 receiving graded eye glasses and 16 people receive eye surgeries with 30 more to be done in the next month. Way up in high in the mountains of the Philippines there are remote villages in the Province of Quirino that have no eye doctors. There aren't any in the whole province and very little access health care. Quirino is a very beautiful place and the people have so much gratitude for the vision services that they received. The course that this mission took was so unusual that it looked at times that it would not happen at all. The venue for the mission was set for almost one year and it was to be Bicol. There was so much resistance by the medical community demanding all sorts of paperwork and documentation – so much so that it became evident that there was not enough time to jump through all the hoops so the sponsor postponed the mission to a later date. It is now late September of 2011. That really put a squeeze for the foundation to come up with an alternate venue with so little time to put one together in time for the 2nd week in January. It was decided that the mobile clinic would probably just have to stay on its base island and provide the vision services there. The first week of October that all changed when a call was received from a lady that had been previously contacted to help sponsor a mission several years age. She was wondering if we still wanted sponsors for any upcoming missions. Her name was Teresita "Tess" Paje, founder and past president of the San Diego Premier Lions Club, she stated that she had a dream in which God instructed her to do a medical mission in her home Province in Quirino. It is located north of Manila in the Luzon (the most populous of the 7,107 Islands in the Philippines) which takes 14 hours to reach by bus from Manila. She wanted to know if she could schedule a future mission. When she was informed that we needed a sponsor for a mission scheduled in just 3 months. She accepted and everything fell into place perfectly. It was truly Gods mission. All the details were worked out perfectly in just 90 days. Every morning before the clinic and during the first few hours of the clinic was a praise and worship service. An average of 325 people were seen each of the 5 days of clinic. Many people answered the daily alter calls and many people accepted the Lord. Three ophthalmologists volunteered to do the cataract surgeries at the time of the mission. The EyeCare WeCare Foundation team of 27 volunteers traveled over 40 hours to arrive there to provide the eye examinations and eyeglasses and returned safely. Just to take the large bus over the two mountain passes, the famous Dalton Pass at 4,000 feet and a second pass over at almost 5,000 feet and couple with their 26 hour ferryboat ride. The results of the mission are what it is all about. The more people that could be are blessed, the more successful the mission. The results were unbelievable when you realize that it was put together in only 3 months. President / Founder Dr. Jim Weyrich was unable to participate because he had suffered a detached retina and was unable to fly to the Philippines. The fact that it usually takes 6 months to a year in advance to get the approval of the Philippines Ophthalmology Association in order to do the cataract surgery. this one only about on month. This happened because there are no ophthalmologist in the Province of Quirino. It was geographically, the furtherest distance that the foundation has ever traveled for a medical vision mission. It was the highest 5 day total for the foundation. As stated above, it was an unbelievable mission.
Large crowds arrived early and patiently
waited to be seen
Every morning started with a praise and worship service with music
The first station is always Registration,
always big lines Next, blood pressures, many people with hypertension are
found
pressures inside the eye are recorded---the computerized instrument shoots a puff of air to measure the pressure - to rule out glaucoma
The auto refractor is a computer that determines the eyeglasses prescription -- here is the pretesting room in front of bus
the doctors do the refraction on everyone Ellen Weyrich, Tess Paje and Governor of Quirino, Mr. Junie Cua
Tess, Dr. San Buenaventura, Ellen, Karen and Jan Ray inside bus Ellen with Dr. Domalanta and his surgical nurses
the people waiting to receive their new glasses the dispensers are very well trained to find the glasses accurately and quickly
The the ophthalmologist performing the cataract surgeries assisted by Resources for the Blind at the Cabarroguis hospital
the surgeons were able to perform a total of 15 surgeries on day 3 and day 4 of the mission
Here are the results of the many miles of travel and great expense ---- BIG GENUINE SMILES
Child and young lady with serious eye problems that our surgeons had an opportunity to evaluate |
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