The doctors and staff at Piedmont Eye Center are proud to be involved in a variety of ongoing trips to help people who cannot afford proper eye care. These outreaches have included helping the local Lynchburg community and extensive international involvement and support. Wondering how you can get involved? Below is a list of the eye care projects where Piedmont Eye Center is actively working with:
In 2005, Dr. Darin K. Bowers, his wife Pam (a registered nurse), and several key volunteers helped establish the first eye clinic in the the poorest region of Roatan, Honduras. The Oakridge Community Clinic is a fully-equipped eye clinic and ophthalmic surgery facility. State-of-the-art cataract equipment, instruments, autoclave, and operating microscope are used to provide surgery to patients who have limited means to pay. Once a year, a team from Piedmont Eye Center travels to Roatan to partner with local volunteer medical professionals. During these annual trips, they provide care to this impoverished area.
To find out more about this medical ministry, or receive information on how to get involved, visit www.healthinsightministry.org.
Since the clinic opened in 1987, Piedmont Eye Center has been actively involved in providing eye care to patients at the Free Clinic of Central Virginia (FCCV). Additionally, our founder and retired physician Dr. Remo Lotano, helped establish the first on-site ophthalmology specialty clinic. If you would like to volunteer to work alongside the Free Clinic, please visit www.fccv.net.
Piedmont Eye Center provides quality, comprehensive eye care for patients referred from Johnson Health Center who have limited or no insurance, or are facing financial difficulties. For more information about this important resource, please visit www.jhcvirginia.org.
This public service program of the Foundation of American Academy of Ophthalmology has the mission to preserve sight by raising awareness about eye disease and providing access to medical eye care. Piedmont Eye Center is proud to participate in providing eye care to people who could not otherwise afford it through free eye exams and medication assistance.
For more information about this program please visit www.eyecareamerica.org.
Dr. Paauw and volunteers from our staff join a team of about 30 who travel to The Northwest Zone of Haiti. This is the poorest Zone in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. There is no other eye care for this area of thousands of people for the entire year. Together, this team ministers to around 1000 patients in clinic and performs 100-200 surgical cases as well as lasers. The cases are primarily cataracts, but the team also has every ophthalmic subspecialty there and will do glaucoma, oculoplastics, and pediatric cases. Many grandparents see their grandchildren for the first time. Many who are led into the clinic with canes, leave praising God for new-found sight. We look forward to returning yearly to renew friendships and again serve by restoring and maintaining sight for those who desperately need it.
While it has been too dangerous to travel to Haiti in recent years, Dr. Paauw continues to support this mission. If you are interested in partnering with our team in purchasing supplies, please visit www.nwhcm.org or call Mary Beth Winkler with Northwest Haiti Christian Mission at 317-228-8770, and tell her you want to make a contribution toward the “2018 VIRGINIA EYE TEAM.”
Operation Sight is a nonprofit program that provides free or reduced cost cataracts surgery to patients in need. Piedmont Eye Center is proud to have doctors who participate in this program.