Aguacate, Guatemala, March 29, 2019
Photo: thewordfromguatemala.com
The village of Aguacate, near the Mexico border in Guatemala, became home to first-ever Orthodox medical clinic in Guatemala, and possibly in all of Central America, in 2015. Most of the residents of the village joined the Orthodox Church in 2010, along with more than 100 other communities throughout the country.
Now, the Fr. Andres Giron Clinic has reached a new milestone, setting up a fully operational vision clinic with the help of donations and visiting missionaries from Pittsburgh, reports The Word From Guatemala.
A team from Pittsburgh, consisting of University of Pittsburgh professor and pediatrician Dr. Larry Butler, his wife Susan, University of Pittsburgh Medical student Mary Morkos, Doctor of Optometry student Jenny Liu and her computer-savvy brother Peter, worked together with Guatemalan optometrist Cesar Roman and his daughter Mimi to get the vision clinic up and running.
Photo: thewordfromguatemala.com
The Pittsburgh team brought with them 1,300 pairs of prescription glasses, 300 pairs of reading glasses, and a high-end auto refractor, used for eye exams, all of which made it through the Mexico City airport with “tearful appeals to the humanity of the customs officials.”
Villagers streamed into the clinic for four days, the majority of whom had never had their eyes examined before or worn the necessary glasses.
One man was overjoyed to see “so many colors,” while one elderly woman told the clinic she would finally be able to read her Bible again.
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