Well, anyone who needs them anyway. Medical Missions

Medical missions are pretty amazing and something pretty amazing happened recently. But first some background.

Nicaragua is a socialist government. Practically, that means hospital visits are free for the people if they go to a public hospital. The socialized medicine system does not cover eyeglasses or dental care. Those things are left for the average citizen to take care of.

That means for a community like the one we serve in those things are far out of reach for the average person. An inexpensive pair of glasses can cost around $60 US. If you only make around $60 US a month you won’t be running in to get your eyes checked.

We were pretty blown away by this and we’ve been searching for a solution for some time. We’re pretty convinced at least some kids were suffering in school due to poor vision.

Then we found a solution. An ophthalmologist from Florida created a portable eye test that can be administered by laymen. The entire kit costs $500 and comes with frames and lenses. (Find out more at http://www.firstsighteyeglasses.com).  We had our dear friends from NICNY New York learn how to administer the test and bring it down.

That means we were giving eye tests, assembling lenses, and giving away prescription eyeglasses in our Enrichment Center. Students were literally coming in blind and leaving with full vision.

We’ve done some pretty amazing medical mission stuff in the past, from OBGYNs with portable ultrasound machines to fixing teeth that were going infectious to catching life threatening diseases. Adding fixing eyesight to the list was an amazing accomplishment for our team. We’re super thankful for all the people that had a hand bringing it together, and we’re looking forward to fixing peoples eyesight for the community.