Enfoque Ixcán, founded by Dr. Scott Pike, is a non-profit organization which provides eye care to a remote jungle region of Guatemala. Dr. Pike is a professor at Pacific University College of Optometry. Their program is unique in that they train, equip and otherwise enable local eye health promoters to provide eye care so that they can serve their communities on a year around basis. They provide basic eye exams, eye glasses, eye health education and access to surgical care.
The mission of Enfoque Ixcán (EI) is to make vision and eye heath care and eye health education available to the people of the Ixcán region of Guatemala. Enfoque Ixcán believes that the most effective method of providing eye health and vision care is to maximize the use of local and regional resources by educating and training local residents. To accomplish this mission, goals have been set to make access to affordable eye health and vision care for all the people of the Ixcán region of Guatemala a reality.
Since 1997, Dr. Pike has methodically developed the project to bring primary eye care to this extraordinarily underserved population. Every year he spends 2 weeks in Santa Maria Tzeja and Playa Grande teaching his local eye health promoters the basics of eye care including anatomy, optics, refraction, eye glasses dispensing, and disease recognition. Each time he visits, Dr. Pike takes the three eye health promoters additional equipment and over time their skills and abilities have developed. To date they have examined over 550 people from more than 25 different villages. Glasses are dispensed from an inventory which Dr. Pike re-stocks on his twice yearly visits.
The next Enfoque Ixcán training trip will be in August , 2010, their 8th annual trip with Amigo Eye Care. The Amigos are a student group from Pacific University College of Optometry in Forest Grove, Oregon. They will have clinics in 3 different villages and if the past is any gauge, over 700 people will be seen and nearly 400 pairs of glasses will be dispensed.
To learn more about EI, please visit their website, or Facebook page (click ‘Like’ to follow along).
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