Providing solutions to common eye conditions is one of the simplest interventions to dramatically increase quality of life among the poor. In late 2022, GuateBUENA re-opened our Visual Health services for the first time since before the pandemic, offering more than 300 free eye exams and high-quality glasses at minimal cost. We are seeking your help to expand this work so that we can reach more communities with visual health campaigns, and to diagnose and treat more common eye problems.
Currently, more than 500,000 Guatemalans 50+ have some problem with their eyes. Common visual health problems often go untreated in poor areas, where few visual health services exist, and seeking private care elsewhere is too costly. According to the Guatemalan National Commission on Eye Health, the situation has worsened since the pandemic, during which many diabetic and hypertensive patients were unable to continue taking their medications, leading to an increase in retinal problems.
GuateBUENA offers free eye exams and low-cost quality eyeglasses, and is seeking to train new Visual Health promoters and to purchase equipment so that we can diagnose and treat people with a wider range of eye conditions. Our goal is to provide 1000 eye exams this year, directly reaching people in their home communities through visual health campaigns, reducing patients' costs by up to 60%.
This service will benefit 1000 Guatemalans of limited resources, by diagnosing and offering solutions to their vision problems, thereby improving people's overall health and well-being, enabling them to continue daily work and activities, and avoiding longterm health complications and even blindness. Our long-term objective is to reach more people with vision problems in poor communities, promoting good vision in the Guatemalan population.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
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