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Guatemala’s Ixcán region, with
over 100,000 residents, is located in the northwestern part of
the country near the Mexican border. In 1996, while visiting the
area, Portland, OR,
optometrist Dr. Scott Pike met a poor Mayan subsistence farmer,
named Pedro Chom. Pedro lived in a co-operatively formed
village, Santa Maria Tzeja.
This chance meeting would change both their
lives.
Every member of the co-operative is
expected to volunteer for the good of the village and Pedro
contributed a few hours of his time each week to work as a
“health promoter”. To compensate for the lack of doctors in
these remote areas, the government trains local residents on the
basics of health care. From minor injuries to delivering a baby,
they become the “health needs go-to people”. Although he took
pride in and enjoyed his work as a health promoter Pedro was
going to quit his job because he was having difficulty reading
the instructions on the medicines he dispensed to his patients.
Dr. Pike realized that all Pedro needed was
reading glasses. Like most other people in the Ixcán, he had no
access to eye care and was too poor to afford it. The nearest eye
doctor was six to ten hours away in the city of
Coban. Few could afford the ride (in the
back of a truck), the time away from their farms and families,
or the doctors fees. When Dr. Pike returned to Portland he made up a pair of glasses and sent
them back to Pedro.
Dr. Pike returned to the village the next
year and with Pedro’s assistance launched an eye care project
for this village. Enfoque Ixcán was born. The name Enfoque Ixcán
means “Focusing on the Ixcán”. Through the years Pedro took on
more and more of the village’s healthcare responsibilities and
now, 12 years later, his volunteer work has evolved into a
fulltime paid position.
Purpose of the Organization
Over 40% of the people of the Ixcán area
need glasses. Almost 5% are going blind with cataracts. While
most cataracts are found on older people, children and young
adults are also being diagnosed with them.
Since 1996 Dr. Pike has methodically
developed the project to bring primary eye care to this
extraordinarily underserved population. Every year he spends a
week in Santa Maria Tzeja teaching first Pedro, and now also
Felipe Panjoj, EI’s newest eye health promoter, the basics of
eye care including anatomy, optics, refraction, eye glasses
dispensing, and disease recognition. Each time he visits, Dr.
Pike takes the two men additional equipment and over time their
skills and abilities have developed. To date they have examined
over 400 people from more than 20 different villages. The
availability of affordable eye care brings people to Santa Maria
Tzeja from all across the Ixcán. Glasses are dispensed from an
inventory which Dr. Pike re-stocks on his twice yearly visits.
He also sends supplies with other people who visit the area.
Dr. Pike's Philosophy
“I
knew, and expected, when I started this adventure that it was a
long term project. The Ixcán has over 100,000 residents. Most,
like Pedro, cannot afford eye care. Because of the poverty of
this region, it is very unlikely that an eye care professional
will settle there in the near future. But, the last 12 years
have shown us that the model we started works.
The
underlying philosophy of Enfoque Ixcán is that the most
appropriate help we have to offer is to train local people to
help themselves. Our goal is to provide the training and
resources which empower local health promoters and Guatemalan
doctors to treat and care for their neighbors. It is our belief
that improved vision and eye care substanstially increase one’s
dignity and quality of life.”
Growth of Enfoque Ixcán
As the project expanded beyond Dr. Pike’s
ability to personally cover expenses, Enfoque Ixcán was formed
as a charitable organization in 2005. It received its 501©3
status in May 2006.
Visualiza
In 2002, Dr. Pike forged a relationship
with an eye clinic named Visualiza in
Guatemala City. This venture has enabled
EI to send people for procedures such as cataract and other eye
surgeries for a minimal outlay of US dollars. Since 2003, the
organization has funded 34 surgeries, thus improving the quality
of life for many families. Visualiza’s special fees for the
poor, called “social service” fees, enable EI to pay for a
patient’s cataract surgery (ies) plus travel, food and lodging
for six days for approximately $250. All of the patients EI
sends to Visualiza qualify as social service patients.
Amigos Eyecare of Pacific
University
In 2003, Dr. Pike began working with an
education supervisor in the Ixcán named Apolonio Gonzales who
has over 60 schools – 4,000 students – under his supervision.
None of those young people had regular vision care. This
concerned Gonzales who knew how important vision is to learning
and he wanted to create a vision care program for his students.
To address this problem, Dr. Pike launched
an annual trip to the Ixcán with optometry students from Pacific
University College of Optometry in Forest Grove, OR
where he is an assistant professor. Each group spends a week
visiting village schools in the far reaches of the Ixcán,
checking eyes and dispensing glasses to children and adults
alike. In their six visits they have seen 3,200 patients,
dispensed over 1200 pairs of glasses, and identified
over 100 people needing cataract surgeries. Those
recommended to have surgery are referred to Felipe who arranges trips to Visualiza. He or
Pedro follow-up with each patient one week and then one month
after surgery to make sure they are healing properly.
Guatemalan Ministry of Health
In 2006, Pedro and Felipe, along with Dr.
Pike, visited the local public health office. After explaining
EI’s work, the two men were recognized as official eye health
promoters for the Ixcán by the Guatemalan Ministry of Health.
The Ministry’s public health doctor has offered to assist EI
with health training opportunities as well as patient
transportation to Visualiza. In time, EI hopes to work more
closely with this government health office, realizing that
inter-institutional collaboration will strengthen the project.
Cooperative Ventures with Local
Optometrists
Dr. Pike and EI’s Board believe that when
the organization has created a solid infrastructure of locally
provided eye health care, Guatemalan optometrists will be
willing to make periodic visits to the region and offer a new
level of professional care supported by EI’s team of eye health
promoters. One such professional has already visited the area
twice, and another has indicated an interest in doing so.
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