Program Objectives
- Provide free quality eye care services to the poor in Nicaragua.
- Train Nicaraguan Lions to provide basic eye care services without a USA brigade
- Through a series of projects, establish sustainable Eye Care Clinics to continue delivering free services after the medical brigade returns to the USA.
- Build relationships between Nicaragua and USA, especially among Lions Clubs.
Project Support
- Lions Clubs: District 20-N (Western New York) and District 5 (Nicaragua)
- Corporate sponsorship: Alcon, Allergan, Reichert
- FONIPRECE Ophthalmic Clinic
Medical Brigade
- 21 USA & Canada Brigade Members (+4 Nicaragua Eye Care Professionals)
- 2 Ophthalmologists (2 Nicaraguan)
- 2 Optometrists (1 Nicaraguan)
- 4 Opticians (1 Nicaragua)
- 4 Registered Nurses
- 13 Non-medical Volunteers (including 8 USA Lions, 1 USA Rotarian)
Patient Eye Care Services
- 2954 Patients treated
- 2917 Vision screening
- 1718 Auto-refractions
- 771 Optometrist examinations
- 31 Prosthetic Eyes
- 2083 Eyeglasses dispensed
- 2749 Sunglasses dispensed
- 186 Safety glasses dispensed
- 2823 Eye drops dispensed
Surgery
- Total Evaluated – 219 Identified – 170 Surgeries Planned
- Cataract – 109 Identified – 72 Surgeries Planned
- Strabismus – 9 Identified – 5 Surgeries Planned
- Pterygium – 33 Identified – 18 Surgeries Planned
- Other Conditions – 18 Identified
- Non-Surgical – 50 Identified
Sustainable Free Eye Care Services
Objective: The Hopeful Ways Eye Care Mission promotes sustainable free eye care services for the Nicaraguan poor with minimal to no support from outside Nicaragua, through training for Nicaragua Lions Club members, loans of ophthalmic instruments, surgery funding, and a coalition with FONIPRECE (a Nicaraguan non-profit eye surgery clinic).
- Developed the capacity for independent Nicaragua Lion Eye Care Brigades
- HopefulWays
- Loaned ophthalmic instruments to Lions Clubs for brigade usage
- Trained Lions on all required brigade functions
- Provides surgical medications & supplies thru donations and fundraising
- Camoapa and Juigalpa Lions Clubs
- Organize small brigades to provide free eye care services to the poor.
- FONIPRECE
- Participate in a Nicaragua Lions small eye care brigades.
- HopefulWays
- Established a coalition to deliver free eye care surgeries to the poor in Nicaragua.
- HopefulWays
- Organize / support eye care missions in Nicaragua
- Identify surgical candidates for Regional Hospital and FONIPRECE
- Raise funds to cover surgical expenses incurred by FONIPRECE
- Nicaragua Lions Clubs
- Support Hopeful Ways Mission projects in Nicaragua.
- Coordinate patients at for surgical evaluation by FONIPRECE
- Refer patients to Regional Hospitals for surgical evaluation
- Coordinate patients scheduled for surgery at FONIPRECE
- Organize a small eye care brigades without a USA-based medical brigade present by using Nicaraguan Lions and volunteer medical staff.
- FONIPRECE Non-profit Eye Surgery Clinic
- Evaluate surgical candidates identified by Hopeful Ways and Lions
- Provide surgery (cataracts, strabismus) at cost with free medical labor.
- Regional Hospitals
- Evaluate surgical candidates identified by Hopeful Ways and Lions
- Provide free minor eye surgeries (pterygium, etc.)
- HopefulWays
Goodwill Activities
- Hopeful Ways donated medications and surgical supplies from excess inventories to FONIPRECE Clinic to use on surgical patients identified during the Eye Care Projects.
- Hopeful Ways delivered donated medical supplies to the Juigalpa Regional Hospital for the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) to improve health care for premature birth babies and breast feeding mothers.
- A Hopeful Ways volunteer delivered donated baseball equipment to fully equip a Juigalpa baseball team, bats, balls, gloves, catcher’s gear, hats, and helmets.
- All children entering the clinic received a small toy to comfort them and keep them entertained during their long wait for clinic services.
- Hopeful Ways volunteers distributed toys to children in an extremely poor roadside rural community. It was like Christmas morning for the children.
Read about the 2017 Nicaragua Eye Care Mission.