.jpeg)
ABOUT
INTERNATIONAL VISION, INC.
OUR HISTORY.
International Vision started in 2016 when a couple of team members traveling with a different organization decided to stay in Haiti after a mission and explore a new area of Haiti they had not seen. They traveled to Île-à-Vache as tourists. While there, they met an Irish woman who lived and worked on the island. She encouraged them to come back in the future to provide care at a local clinic, since there was no eye care available on the island.
When the other organization cancelled their trip in 2017, these team members decided to travel back to Île-à-Vache to see if providing eye care at the small Kaykok clinic was indeed needed and feasible. A small team of 2 doctors, one technician and one interpreter attended and after seeing 150 patients in a day and a half, and finding many patients with glaucoma and cataracts, they decided eye care was indeed needed on the island, and International Vision was born. They returned in 2018, examining 500 patients in 5 days, with the surgeon traveling to the mainland with a few patients to perform cataract surgery in a local hospital. In 2019, they saw 600 patients in 5 days and performed the first ever eye surgeries on the island, completing 53 cataract, pterygium and eyelid surgeries.
We are the only medical group to provide ongoing eye care on Île-à-Vache and the first to provide eye surgery on the island. We have a great reputation for providing excellent eye care and people travel for days to come to see us. 20 volunteers have participated from all over the world including the USA, Brazil, Denmark, Ireland, Cuba, Rwanda and Haiti.
OUR
MISSION.
International Vision supports eye care specialists and lay people in providing vision and medical eye care to impoverished people who otherwise have no access to eye care. This purpose is accomplished in the following ways:
1. Providing eye care specialists and lay people with the equipment necessary for providing eye care.
2. Providing necessary eyeglasses and eye health medications to the people it serves.
3. Providing and arranging for surgical eye care as appropriate for the people it serves.
4. Providing educational information about eye health and wellness to the people it serves with the goal of improving and maintaining eye health.
5. Supporting efforts to build, equip and maintain eye care facilities and educating staff to provide ongoing eye care to the people it serves.
6. Sponsoring, hosting or participating in events and activities to raise funds for ongoing efforts.
