One time will do it.  See someone who has never been able to afford
eyeglasses put on their first pair... and you're hooked!  How can I
help make this happen again and again?

Oh yes, NOW it gets complicated.  Should I collect used glasses back
home?  Should I just send money?  Can I help the people who live here
set up something permanent?  How?  Where to start?

Truth is, there are many answers to questions like these.  We all agree
that the goal is for there to be continuous, affordable access to
primary eye care and new prescription eyeglasses.  Filling the gaps
between here and there, given local circumstances, is why we've
established InFOCUS and this discussion group.

HOW TO CONTRIBUTE TO THIS GROUP:  We're all in this together, so just
like the "Take a Penny / Leave a Penny" dish at the convenience store,
benefit from the experience of others and share what you're learned.
Welcome to the calling!

TO THE DEVELOPING COUNTRY EYE CARE PROVIDER:

What is clear is that a lot of your friends and neighbors need help and
cannot get it.  It might require hundreds of kilometers of travel for
them to reach a Primary Health Center or District Hospital - and once
there, the trained person or glasses they need may still be out of
reach.  Even for you, a professional in your field, the eye care
environment can be impossible to predict.  There are volunteer groups
in and out.  Local non-profit organizations try to help.  The Vision
2020 initiative of the World Health Organization and the International
Agency for Prevention of Blindness means that money targeting a
specific disease may be poured into the country for a few years, but
the odds are that when the money starts to wind down, the disease will
wind back up.

InFOCUS tries to make things better with two strategies.  First, we
work to lower the cost of establishing and operating an eye clinic
through the development of reliable, low-cost equipment and supplies.
To the extent that we can help people like you work more profitably,
people like you can afford to serve those who cannot pay as much.  The
result is that many more people are able to access care!  You represent
the "front-line" in the battle against preventable and treatable causes
of blindness.  Please tell us what we (or other organizations within
the international eye care community) can do to help you.

Secondly, we train para-professionals to work as Primary Eye Care
Providers ("PEPs") in cooperation with doctors like you.  These PEPs
can work on a sustainable basis in more remote, lower income areas
because the cost of their training and pay is lower. They refer any
case that is not simple to treat to you; boosting your practice and
relieving both you and the nation's health care system of the waste
represented by having a highly trained person treat simple
conjunctivitis.  Contact InFOCUS if you are interested in increasing
access to care for marginalized people while driving more business to
your own practice.  Let's talk about what is possible!

HOW TO CONTRIBUTE TO THIS GROUP: At least initially, most of the
members of this discussion group will be Westerners struggling to
understand the challenges of providing high-quality eye care and
eyeglasses in a developing country.  Frankly, we can be quite naive and
you are the person to educate us.  Also, let us know how volunteer
groups can cooperate with people in your country to increase the
effectiveness of medical missions.  What do we need to know?  Do we
need to register somewhere or obtain some form of official permission
to work?  What mistakes have you seen other groups make and how can we
avoid them?  What have the most helpful groups done that can be
replicated now?

TO EVERYONE

Thank you for caring about those among us who need help with eye care
and eyeglasses!  We look forward to your input and hope that you will
find this forum helpful and informative.

All the best,

David Dunaway
Executive Director
InFOCUS