Vision Health International Brings Sight Restoration To Those In Need

Chicago, IL/December 4, 2006 – Vision Health International, a United States-based non-profit dedicated to providing vision care and sight restoration to Latin America, announces that it has provided 16,059 eyes exams in Latin America, given out 14, 881 pairs of eye glasses, and performed 3,787 eye-sight restoration surgeries. Robert Martin, Vice President of Vision Health International, recently returned from a 2-week program in Guatemala that highlighted Vision Health International’s eyeglass distribution program in the region. Martin has completed over thirty trips to Latin America for Vision Health International in the past thirty years.

“My heart is touched every time I go to Latin America and I see women crying because for the first time in years they can thread a needle because of the eye glasses that Vision Health International provides,” said Robert Martin, Vice President of Vision Health International. “Basic eye care that we take for granted in the United States and in many cases has become a luxury, is out of reach for millions in rural Latin America. Our programs bring the gift of sight to these people.

Vision Health International was established in 1985 to honor the work of Dr. Rodney E. Abernethy, a pioneering ophthalmologist in the cause of providing affordable and accessible health care in Latin America. The non-profit is a volunteer organization in which members provide their own transportation to Latin America, as well as, time away from their own careers. Vision Health International receives no federal funding and relies completely on the time and resources of its members and private donations.

Members of Vision Health International, like Robert Martin a member of the Chicago Board of Trade, go to Latin America as part of programs that range from one week to four months. They are driven by a desire to bring vision to a region where at most one there is only one ophthalmologist for every 350,000 people. An average program of Vision Health International’s usually consists of 20 volunteers who provide 120 sight restorations and distribute over 1000 pairs of eyeglasses.

Additional information on Vision Health International may be obtained at www.visionhealth.org.

###