January 2025
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- VOSH-Connecticut held its annual eye care clinic in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua on January 10-18, 2025. This was the 24th year of service to the San Juan del Sur area and the 21st under the auspices of VOSH-Connecticut, along with three previous missions under the auspices of VOSH-NECO. The team consisted of Clinic 1
- Dr. Harsida Desai
- Dr. Paul Chopra
- Jina Yi, 2 Student Leader
- Leyna Jaster, Assistant
- Melanie Victor-UNAN
- Clinic 2
- Dr. Margaret Moore
- Dr. Tobin Ansel
- Arfa Tasneem, Assistant
- Abdullah Mohammed Altaullah, Assistant
- Axelia Ballastero-UNAN
- Clinic 3
- Dr. Robert Mingrone
- Dr. Anthony Rao
- Dr. David Kageyama
- Denise Lewis, Assistant
- Abraham Martinez-UNAN
- Clinic 4
- Dr. Michael Raymer
- Dr. John Maciejewski
- Dr. Jamie Etterling
- Issa Swayubiago, Assistant
- Gerardo Flores-UNAN
- Clinic 5
- Dr. Kimberly Raucci
- Dr. Rosario Flores
- Juliana Le, Assistant
- Dawn Gabriel, Assistant
- Jeymi Machado-UNAN
- Clinic 6
- Dr. Matthew Blondin, Clinic Director
- Audrey B. Blondin, Clinic Director
- Dra. Rosa Elena Bello, Clinic Director
- Gurneet Kaur, 1 Optometry Student
- Jazmine Shepard, 1 Optometry Student
- George Craig, Clinic Assistant
- Wellness Consultant
- Candace Craig, Clinic Assistant
- Patient Coordinator
- John Bedford
- Assistant to Clinic Directors
- Bus Coordinator
- Angelina Barillas, Assistant
- Jane Mirandette, Mission Coordinator
- Clinic 7
- Dr. Fabian Villacis
- Dr. Lawrence Nierman
- Becerra Jorge, Assistant
- Omar Paredes, Assistant
- Amanda Torres-UNAN
- Dispensario
- Optician Mareshah Lynch
- Optician Rebecca Raucci
- Optician Authors Fulton
- Sally Lee - Optician Assistant
- Deborah Weyel, CPOA
- Luis Enrique Santana, Assistant
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As in years past, approximately 80 local volunteers assisted with the mission. Dra. Rosa Elena Bello supervised the mission and the local volunteers as she has done for the past 24 years, and many local volunteers were now able to assist throughout the mission as translators and helpers, including Angelina Barillas who was very helpful to us in Clinic 6. This year’s mission was made up of 15 Optometrists and 3 optometry students from Berkeley, as well as, 5 local Nicaraguan optometry students and 1 local Nicaraguan optometrist from UNAN (National Autonomous University of Nicaragua). We were joined once again by our local friends from Torrington, CT, George and Candace Craig. For all 4 days George took blood pressures on patients and Candace collected and counted all of the exam slips daily for which we are very grateful to both of them. We also were joined once again by volunteer John Bedford who provided wonderful and invaluable service throughout the week in every way as needed including help with all the daily patient buses. The UNAN volunteers were able to join us through a grant of assistance obtained by Maria Arce-Moreira, Executive Director of VOSH-International working with Dr. Jairo Antonio Mercado - for which we were very grateful and hope to continue in the coming years. We thank our liaison, Jane Mirandette, for the coordination and care of these students. We also had several pre-optometry student volunteers and parents from Berkeley and that also worked very well and hope to continue for the future as well. Denise Lewis, RN was able to help in the medical area set up and staffed by Dra. Rosa Elena Bello and several other local Nicaraguan health care professionals.
The dispensary ran smoothly thanks to a great staff including returning opticians, Mareshah Lynch (17 years) and Becca Raucci(3 years). We had two new opticians join us this year, Debbie Weyel and Austin Flores, as well as, long time optician assistants, Sally Lee (14 years) and Luis Enrique Santana (3 years). New to the dispensary this year was Juliana Le who did an incredible job. VOSH-CT received many generous donations of lenses and frames and multiple offices helped with the edging to make approximately 1800 brand new pairs of glasses including single vision and bifocals. What a difference these make for quality and moving the line of patients faster. We want to send a big thank you and shout out to Cherry Optical Lab (rep. Michelle Pepin) that took care of Mareshah’s entire, lengthy wishlist of lenses. Just Wow! For the third year in a row, VSP’s Eyes of Hope Donation Program generously donated women’s ophthalmic frames and sunglasses (amount requested 600 each) and 25 pairs of readers (new initiative). Maui Jim has filled the basements of Mareshah and Dr. Kim Raucci with two styles of men’s ophthalmic frames that will continue to be used over the next several years. Eye Care of Maine also gifted approximately 250 frames. In addition, VOSH-CT purchased 1,800 pairs of donated glasses from the Virginia Lions Club, 5,000 pairs of sunglasses & 2,000 pairs of readers. The task of edging all these lenses into frames is an overwhelming task that becomes doable with the help of many offices including, Dr. Fabian Villacis, Dr. Matt Blondin, Dr. Brian Lynch, Dr. Anton Rao, Dr. Harsida Desai, Dr. Tobin Ansel and Shawn Gordon @ Fritz and Hawley. Several offices in Maine also helped with making glasses; Mareshah @ Eye Care of Maine, Cindy @ Dr. William Beeaker’s office, Blanche and Kim @ Mountain View Eye Care, Jessie @ Maine Eye Doctors, Kevin @ Kennebec Eye Care and Katrina @ Newport Eye Care. A big thank you to all for your part in giving the gift of sight!
As we started a number of years ago, each mission member was asked to transport one supply bag and most mission members as part of the transport team arrived on the same day & time per our request to assure that everything got through at one time. Once again this worked fine this year with great planning and preparation by Dra. Rosa Elena Bello having no problems getting through customs at all and thankfully this year nothing got left behind in Miami.
We also continued to receive excellent service from Richard Morales Narvaez, owner of Gaby Transport, along with his drivers and helpers. Richard and his company provided safe and reliable transportation services to the group and its members throughout the mission, and we are very grateful for everything Richard did to help out on our behalf. We are also appreciative of the delicious baked goods and cakes made by Mirna Perez. In addition, Roger Mahieu, Jr., owner of True Value of Litchfield, once again donated 100 nail bags which were distributed to mission members and volunteers and used to hold eye glasses and sunglasses, and we are most appreciative of his continued kindness, generosity and support of our mission. Henrietta Horvay donated an assortment of children’s Goshen soccer shirts which were distributed to the great delight of the young patients!! We also continue to acknowledge and appreciate the tremendous amount of work our office assistant, Nicole Gaynor, as well as our foster son Orlando Sevilla, do each year throughout the year in preparation for the mission. A number of mission members stayed at the Hotel Victoriana which was terrific, as well as the Hotel Isabella with the continued help and assistance of owner Jane Mirandette.
For the third year now the clinic took place about 10 kilometers out of town at the Fundación Patricia Claeys adult education school facility. As scheduled, we all met at this clinic site at 1 p.m. on Sunday, January 12th for clinic set-up and orientation and everything went fine without any problems at all at this clinic site. We arranged for local loud speaker announcements in San Juan del Sur prior to the start of the clinic to let patients know of the availability and location of clinic services, as well as arranging for a local bus to transport patients back and forth to the clinic which worked very well, along with the additional 8-10 buses per day that brought patients to the clinic from the surrounding southern Nicaraguan area at an approximate cost to VOSH-CT of $9,000.00. Unfortunately, we were unable to service the northern Nicaraguan area of Nagarote as we had done for many years in the past as they were no longer able to provide for the bus transport.
As in the past, VOSH-Connecticut provided for all expenses for both mission members and local volunteers relating to the clinic including breakfast, snack, lunch, at a cost to VOSH-CT of $2,800 for the 4-day mission. Marilena and her wonderful staff did their usual wonderful job of cooking and providing all of the food and food services as she and her Mom before her have done for the past 25 years. Certificates of appreciation and participation were given to all participating mission members. Our veteran security teams returned once again, providing great service to the clinic and all participants throughout the week. Group pictures were taken on Wednesday and we all enjoyed a great celebration dinner on Thursday night after the clinic was over at Brisas del Mar arranged wonderfully by Mareshah and Sally.
Over the four-day clinic period, we saw 3,937 patients, broken down as follows, increasing our total patient service to almost 60,000 patients over the past 20 years: Monday: 1,117Tuesday: 1,234Wednesday: 821Thursday: 765Total: 3,937
(2003-3,158) (2004-2,530) (2005-2,607) (2006-2,283) (2007-2,359) (2008-2,428) (2009-2,674)(2010-2,853) (2011-3,259) (2012-2,772) (2013-2,696) (2014-3,129) (2015-3,188) (2016-3,205) (2017-4,488) (2018-4,688) (2020-4,013) (2023-3,963) (2024-3,734) (2025-3,937)Numerous drugs were requested and donated from Alcon Laboratories, Inc. and Americares, which were very useful and helpful to the patients throughout the mission. It was also interesting to note that the number of patients 3,937 spells EYES!!
Escalating mission costs continue to present a challenge, especially with this change to the new clinic site. Total mission expenditures now exceed $22,000.00 per mission, funded solely through volunteer donations solicited primarily by myself through the CAO, as well as through our yearly mission fees and the generosity of our close friends and associates. We continue to be appreciative of the generosity of the members of the CAO and others, as well as, our mission members, who give so generously not only of their time but financially as well. In addition, our mission members led by Dr. Michael Rayher personally raised and donated over $5,000 towards our mission costs for which we were very grateful and appreciative and also assisted other mission members in raising funds through Go Fund Me efforts. Dr. Margaret Moore, a graduate of the University of Notre Dame was also able to secure a $5,000 donation from Notre Dame to help with our mission expenses.
VOSH-CT was very appreciative of being allowed to continue to be of service in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua. It was unfortunate that Dr. Anton Rao’s passport was misplaced, necessitating a delay in his departure from Nicaragua, but fortunately only for a few days with the help of the American embassy in Managua. The need for all types of eye care services continues to be great and we continue to be the only remaining eye care mission still operating in Nicaragua. We again want to personally acknowledge and thank our local sponsor of this mission since 1999, Dra. Rosa Elena Bello, who without her help, guidance, support and authorizations this mission would be unable to take place. VOSH-CT continues to be grateful to all of those, both here and in Nicaragua, who work together as one to provide eye care services to so many who otherwise would have none.
Respectfully submitted,Matthew Blondin, O.D., F.A.A.O., MPH Clinic Director Audrey B. Blondin, JD, MPHClinic Director