Restoring the gift of sight in Honduras – NEI Joins Vision Outreach International

June 1, 2009 – In May 2009, Ms. Deborah Kunda, a resident of Scranton, Pennsylvania, who is a registered ophthalmic ultrasound biometrist at Northeastern Eye Institute in Scranton, joined a team of twelve eye care professionals with Vision Outreach International from Houston, Texas in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, where they performed 198 cataract surgeries.

Vision Outreach International, along with the local Lion’s Club in San Pedro Sula and OneSight (a Luxottica-affiliated group) provided eye care and recycled eyewear to thousands of underprivileged people in Honduras.

Vision Outreach International is a Christian based nonprofit organization, which operates out of Great Lake Eye Care in St Joseph, Michigan. Their goal is to train ophthalmologists to perform manual small-incision cataract surgery for the purpose of restoring sight to the blind poor in remote parts of the world.

Ms. Kunda, who has worked at Northeastern Eye Institute in Scranton since 1991, played a primary role in providing the necessary measurements for the intraocular implants used for each cataract patient. She also assisted during surgery and helped examine post-operative patients.

Cataracts are one of the leading causes of curable blindness around the world. Since their inception in 2002, VOI has mobilized over 250 volunteers on missions to 20 countries around the world. In all, several thousand cataracts have been removed by their teams.

Ms. Kunda was sponsored in large part by Dr. Arthur Jordan Jr., her co-workers at Northeastern Eye Institute, a leading comprehensive eye care organization in Northeastern Pennsylvania, and her family.