05 Apr Blessings Helps Restore Eyesight Across the World

Since its founding in 1990, MEDICO has provided medical, dental, and vision care to more than 200,00 people in Honduras and other parts of Central America. Providing quality eye care and glasses has always been a key part of its mission.

Erin Martin, MEDICO’s Executive Director, says, “We take eye doctors and optometrists to remote villages. In the past we’ve had a really difficult time sourcing glasses. Now that Blessings carries them, it is very helpful for us. In the past we relied on donations and Lions Clubs.

A team member from Restoring Vision conducts an eye exam.

“Sometimes the donated glasses can be very flimsy and not able to withstand the rigors of Central America. So we are very pleased with the quality of Blessings’ glasses.”

Blessing first began supplying eyeglasses to teams in 2014. To date, we have shipped over 20,500 pairs around the world. These include reading glasses of various strengths and self-adjusting FocusSpec® glasses for people who are nearsighted.

Erin says that the glasses they’ve received from Blessings are not only improving eyesight, but are also helping disadvantaged women gain job skills.

“We’ve been working in one community in Honduras for six or seven years that’s very hard to reach because the roads leading to the village become impassable six months out

of a year. We work with a birthing clinic that’s basically on the top of a mountain. It’s in a rural area and the women have to travel quite far to be there, so they usually arrive several weeks in advance of their due dates. One thing that our organization has been doing is trying to give these women a trade while they are waiting. We’re teaching hem how to sew to improve their economic standing. But many of the women needed glasses before they could start.”

Glasses are available via www.blessings.flywheelstaging.com/order.

(Modified from Blessings International's April 2015 newsletter)