Dominican Republic 2014

In 2014 the team travelled to Dajabon, Dominican Republic in a unique educational mission.  We got a tour of the small, rugged town by a young girl named Nicari. Everything is blurry to her due to her cataracts. We were fortunately able to restore her vision and give her glasses so that she can see perfectly.

We were also able to help the 73 year old woman named Natalia Garasco who hadn’t been able to see properly for around 2 years. Being the owner of her own shop, her lack of vision is beginning to take a toll on her ability to earn money and survive. “If you can’t see you don’t have a life like other people” she said. Read Natalia’s full story here.

The Dajabon family (or community), suffers greatly from a general disorder causing astigmatism and retinal breaks. Without a specialists treatment many of the family members would go blind.  Therefore, we arranged for the transportation, evaluation, and treatment of about 50 family members from the Dajabon. Our team worked 12-14+ hours each day to perform as many surgeries as possible. These long hours were completely worth it when the patients took their eye bandages off and were able to see.

“It’s the best week we have all year just because of the smiles on these patients faces” A short video documenting a part of ISMS-ORV-DR-2014 mission was shot and produced by Daniel Byers, skyshipfilms.com, with technical help (audio and lighting) by Justin S Gentile and photography by Ivanhoe A. Gadpaille, ivanhoecameraman.com. Click above to watch.