If you do eye care, we need your help!

Right now IHS (International Health Services) is in need of eye specialists to
go on a 2 week medical mission trip to Honduras. We are also looking for several
doctors, nurses, one more surgeon, plus other medical professions and helpers.

Please read the attached stories from some of those who went this past
February !!

It is a large undertaking with about 10 teams planned for the 15 Feb to 2
March, 2008 trip. Fortunately the IHS staff has done this a lot so newcomers
find it pretty easy to get ready to go. We hope to have 7 or 8 medical and
dental clinics plus about 2 or 3 eye care teams (glasses, etc.) Hopefully 2
surgical teams can go, too. This means about 100 people will go counting all
the support and worker people who go to assist (many spouses and friends go in
this way). We have done this for 25 years so we have all the logistics planned.
This includes a container shipment to send eye team plus medical clinic &
surgical team supplies. We also send pharmacy and personal items.

How many teams of each type we will have totally depends on how many people
sign up and what their profession is. We do most of the sign ups early (this
summer) so that a small group can go to Honduras ahead of time and line up the
team locations based on who has signed up. We have had a fairly good turn out
so far for some clinic workers. However, I only know of one eye specialist
signed up and only a few doctors and nurses. Our purpose is to go to the poor
remote locations of Honduras where there are no eye care, medical, or dental
services for the local people. It would be a sad thing if a team did not go to
a very needy area simply because we lacked one person to complete a team.

Each eye team will have at least one eye specialist plus one or two helpers to
assist in fitting glasses. It would also have an interpreter and a radio
operator if needed. Usually about 5 will be on such a team. IHS has some eye
testing instruments plus we have several sources for eye glasses and other
needed supplies which IHS will provide. What we need most is your expertise to
add to the skills of the team. We already have several support people signed up
and ready to go. Our predominant work is doing quality eye testing and
prescribing/fitting eye glasses.

Each team is well rounded and this also helps when a spouse or friend wants to
be on the same team (note our application has a place to note your desire to be
on a team with some one else). A parent can take a MATURE son or daughter also
if they are able to be a productive member of the team.

This is very urgent because we need to know by mid September who is able to
go. Near the end of October, a small planning team will take the list of names
(& skills) of those going and they will actually travel to Honduras and assign
the actual sites based on that list. They will also work with the Honduran
government (& Salud) to plan the best places. Unlike many organizations who go
and do this work, we do not just “show up” we actually plan with the Hondurans
on where best to go. So, if this is even a possibility for you, please start
with a call to me or one of our Directors so we can help you to get information.

There are several other IHS Directors to cover all the professions who go.
They can help to answer more technical questions about the work of the eye team
or anything of that nature. So let me know if you have questions in that
regard. Note that we do have a tiny web site with GENERAL info:
www.IHSOFMN.org It does not go into much detail on the eye care work we do but
it does give some good basic info. One good place to look on the site is the
Newsbreak newsletters which have stories of the daily work including about eye
team work. The newsletter also has a map on one of the last pages that gives
you a good idea of where the teams typically go and the types of teams.

Call me any time or write back. A call is best so I can fill you in on basic
information and the variety of work conditions we encounter. Phone 320-634-4386

I and the needy of Honduras thank you for your interest in this very rewarding
work!

Best regards,

John Kirckof
JMKKEK@...
Phone: 320-634-4386
IHS Board of Directors



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