ENFOQUE IXCAN

The mission of Enfoque Ixcán is to ensure that the people of the Ixcán region of Guatemala have access to vision and eye heath care and eye health education. Enfoque Ixcán maximizes the use of local and regional resources and builds capacity and expertise among the population in order to empower local communities.
Current goals are:
~To build a small office building for our eye health promoters and volunteer Guatemalan optometrists to work from
~To find and train a 4th person to work as an eye health promoter
~To continue to fund 40 or more eye surgeries per year
~To train local public health nurses about eyes, eye conditions and eye care

Enfoque Ixcan has hired and trained 4 eye health promoters to work in our new eye clinic. They staff the clinic 5 days a week doing basic eye exams and testing for eye problems needing professional care. Six times a year they take groups of patients to a Guatemalan eye clinic for eye surgeries, mainly cataract surgeries.

STRATEGIES

In pursuit of the Vision and Mission of Enfoque Ixcán we:
--Educate and train residents to:
• Use simple and inexpensive instruments and materials to measure and treat basic refractive conditions,
• Recognize eye and eye-related diseases,
• Know the signs and symptoms of vision and eye problems,
• Educate the public on eye conditions and preventive measures in eye care,
• Refer and escort patients with eye and general health problems needing specialized care to appropriate Guatemalan health professionals,
• Provide surgical follow-up care during and after surgical visits as requested by the local surgeons.

--Encourage collaboration and build relationships with local and regional organizations that provide or influence eye and general health care, including:
• Eye health professionals
• General health professionals
• Social organizations
• Governmental departments and agencies
--Engage the North American public through newsletters, the internet and in personal presentations in order to:
• Educate people regarding the conditions and problems our neighbors in Ixcán, Guatemala face on a daily basis which deny them access to eye care,
• Make known the historical and modern forces which contribute to the current conditions in Ixcán,
• Raise funds to build a framework for sustainable eye care in Ixcán.

It is currently within the capabilities of Enfoque Ixcan to:
~Fund 80 to 100 eye surgeries per year at Guatemalan eye clinics
~provide basic eye exams to 1500 people per year
~supply over 500 eye glasses per year to people needing vision correction
~provide eye care training to local public health workers
~sending teams of eye care volunteers to remote village in the Ixcan region

Progress toward our goals is measured in several ways:
~The response from our donors in the USA has increased every year since our founding, from under $8,000 eight years ago to over $50,000 in 2021.
~increased donations have allowed us to examine more patients, dispense more glasses, and fund more eye surgeries, but there are always more people to examine.
~we have moved from having no central office space in 2009, to having a small, rented office since 2010, to our current new eye clinic completed in August 2021.
~from 2003 to 2010 we took patients to have eye surgeries in groups of 2 - 4, now we are taking them in groups of 20 at a time.
~the Ixcan public is learning that Enfoque Ixcan is the organization to call for eye care as people in very remote villages are calling our eye health promoter when they have questions and problems regarding the eyes.