An ecstatic grade school girl with tiny eyes jumped up and down as she ran to the street, shouting: "I can now see… I can now see clearly things at a distant… I can now read." The same joy was seen on the face of a first-grade boy after he got his new pairof glass which checked his farsightedness defect.

The same joyful reaction has been repeated many times not only by children but also by their parents and grandparents who are beneficiaries of the EyeCare, We Care Foundation, Inc., a Washington-based group that has established its Philippine foundation in Ma-ao, Bago City in Negros Occidental.

Last month, a total of 1,137 indigents received free eye examinations and eyeglasses in its eight-day clinics in five barangays of Bago City and also at the River of Life Church in Bacolod City. The June 9-16 mission was the first of the two annual programs of the foundation conducted in the country since May 2005.

Among the patients this year was a little boy from the rice fields of Barangay Pacol, a second grader who was diagnosed to have He had a total corneal scar on his right eye with no vision. During the examination, the boy said stated that he couldn't see the school board with his left eye. He could see at near, but had to hold things near his nose. Dr. Weyrich determined that he needed special lenses for his left eye. It's bad that you could not experience the pure joy of witnessing someone being able to see at distance for the first time, the foundation website said.

In the June clinics, 1,124 pairs of eyeglasses were dispensed, the figure indicating that about 98 percent of the total number of patients received wearable corrections. The team also referred to local specialists 123 cataract and 67 pterygium cases.

The Philippine clinics are now held in either June or July and December or January. To date, approximately 4,500 have benefited from the foundation's medical-vision mission services.

The foundation was organized by Dr. James Weyrich, a practicing optometric physician for almost 40 years, and his wife, the former Ellen Tagobader, a Negrense and now an optometric assistant of her husband. It is a registered, non-profit Christ-centered international organization which hopes that poor people of the world, through its operations, will have access to free quality vision services.

The couple met when Dr. Weyrich served as a vision mission volunteer with the Mercy Ships for about six months in the Philippines in 1999. The American doctor has been actively involved as leader in medical missions in Nicaragua, Honduras, Morocco, Algeria and was also a volunteer in Mexico.

We met in the mission field and we both have committed ourselves to continue to the mission field, The doctor said.

What he saw in the Philippines pushed him to plan for the establishment of the foundation, which paved the way for solving the problems of getting supplies and high technology equipment into and out of receiving nations which hound past and present medical mission groups.

"I've never seen so many cases of serious eyesight defects, like cataract, in my vision mission trips all over than here," he said, adding that the problem is compounded because "they have no access to vision care providers as they have no money, thus nothing can be done about their situation."

Dr. Weyrich, a past president and outstanding doctor awardee of the Optometric Physicians of Washington, in responding to the challenge to help these people, said, "the biggest need is in the rural areas and I wondered how they survived." The U.S-based organization eventually started its Philippine foundation in Maao with Jobert Tagobader, recently elected councilor of Bago City, as its director, a function he performs on a voluntary basis.

The spirit of volunteerism binds the Philippine staff together. When we go to the clinics, we have a staff of well-trained volunteers who offer their time and efforts without expecting any compensation, the doctor said, and for that, I am very thankful for the selfless assistance they have extended through the years… I have a very good volunteer crew. The veteran optometric physician believes that the high rate of eye defects among his patients in Negros is, among others, due to the patients' long hours of work in farms. He said wind dust, exposure to elements, particularly for rice paddy workers, who work with their eyes constantly exposed to the reflection of the sun on the water, trigger serious eyesight problems. About 70 percent of these farm workers end up with damaged eyes, he said, based on the medical history of their patients through the years.

The foundation extends free eye examinations, free eyeglasses, free medications and provides for needed eye surgeries, with the patients requiring the medical operation referred to local specialists. It has sent more than 200,000 spectacles to the country which were donated by various organizations, like the Lions and Kiwanis. The eyeglasses are dispenses to the patients with spectacle prescriptions issued after the examination conducted by Dr. Weyrich and his staff.

Eventually, the Philippine foundation hopes to set up its own optical laboratory in Negros as it will go full-swing in its expansion program, hopefully by December, when it will operate its 'Clinic on Wheels'.

The laboratory will have state-of-the-art equipment to produce eyeglasses for the difficult prescriptions that cannot be found in the huge inventory of donated eyeglasses, Dr. Weyrich said as he also explained the plan to expand the free vision mission to other towns in the province and other parts of the country by ferrying the bus to other islands. While the expansion of services has long been planned, it has been stalled as it was difficult to transport the heavy equipment used in the clinics. With the 'Clinic on Wheels', it will no longer be difficult to prepare and protect from elements the heavy equipment before and after the clinics, he added.

We are appealing to civic-minded individuals, organizations, corporations and other philanthropic foundations to help us in our vision mission to uplift the conditions of needy people of the country and the rest of the world, Dr. Weyrich said.

The plan also includes the eventual expansion of services to other Asian countries, like Thailand, Vietnam, China and Taiwan.

Reiterating the "Delivering if God's Ultimate Vision Plan to the Poor" purpose of EyeCare We Care, Dr. Weyrich said with the help of donors, he and the foundation volunteers are engaged "in a lifetime commitment that could mean life-changing experiences among our beneficiaries". God has given each of us abilities, he further stressed, and we have to utilize those abilities to the maximum, among them, by giving back part of these to help others.

I'd feel guilty if I don't use this God-given ability to help others by just spending my free days under the sun in Boracay," said Dr. Weyrich, who added that he doesn't plan to retire at all - "there's much to do to make a difference in people's lives". AVDelCarmen

Individual, organizations and corporations interested to support or be part of the mission work may check out its website, www.eyecare.wecare.org