Haiti Vision Mission 2006 Team Provides Sight Assistance to 550 Haitians

Pignon, Haiti—Deb O’Meara, Program Assistant and Education Coordinator for the Iowa Lions Eye Bank, recently returned from a 10-day Vision Mission trip to Pignon, Haiti (February 8-17, 2006).  Deb became involved with the 17-member mission team from central Iowa via Dr. John Sutphin, Professor of Clinical Ophthalmology and Director of Cornea and External Disease Service at U of I Healthcare, and Medical Director of the Iowa Lions Eye Bank.

During their eight days in the village of Pignon, located in the Central Plateau of Haiti, the medical staff provided eye screening examinations, ophthalmic treatment, and dispensing of glasses to 527 under-privileged Haitians, and performed 32 ocular surgeries.  The Vision Mission Team offers their assistance as a humanitarian service, working within the Hospital de Bienfaisance in Pignon, founded in 1983 by a native of the area, Dr. Guy Theodore and the Christian Mission of Pignon, and the Haitian American Friendship Foundation (HAFF) located in the Bohoc community, about 4 miles outside of Pignon.

Dr. Sutphin, five-year veteran of the Vision Mission Team, states, “I go to help provide medical and surgical eye care to a region of about 160,000 people who have no other care during the year… I get far more from the experience than I ever give.”  The days spent in the eye clinic and operating room were long days, filled with the stress of wanting to help the hundreds of people who travel long distances by foot or donkey, waiting outside the doors and windows, in hopes of receiving medical attention. “Realizing at the day’s end the impossibility of being able to help all those waiting was emotionally devastating,” commented Deb O’Meara.  “However, the entire experience—my first visit to a third world country—and the spiritual satisfaction of feeling like I helped make a difference, has already convinced me to return next year.”

Located on the western third of the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, Haiti is one of the world’s poorest countries.  Most of its 7 million inhabitants depend upon farming to feed themselves, yet years of extreme cutting of the forests and resulting soil erosion have devastated the land.  Political unrest continually contributes to the country’s troubles.  The government seeks to address problems ranging from environmental degradation to substandard health care to widespread poverty.