North Carolina Event Leads to New Life for Teen in the Philippines

NORFOLK, VA (10/13/2010)(readMedia)-- A brief conversation, an e-mail from the U.S. to the Philippines and less than $200 helped set in motion a chain of healing that culminated this summer in an optical implant for a 17-year-old girl.

Edita Adams heard about Seeing Clearly, Physicians for Peace's comprehensive optometric eye care program, at a fundraiser for the group last May in Chapel Hill, N.C. After the event, Adams asked Physicians for Peace to help one of her relatives in the Philippines, a teenager named Mary Grace who was hit in the eye by a coat hanger in 2006. The accident deformed and incapacitated Mary Grace's eye and robbed the girl of her self esteem.

The heartfelt request for aid presented an unusual challenge for Physicians for Peace, an international nonprofit organization that mobilizes volunteer healthcare professionals to assist developing nations with unmet medical needs and scarce resources. Though many Physicians for Peace missions have significant clinical components, as an education-based nonprofit, the group does not typically seek out a single patient for treatment. Since 1998, however, Physicians for Peace has developed and maintained an in-country network in the Philippines through its permanent affiliate, Physicians for Peace-Philippines. Working from notes taken during the North Carolina fundraiser, John Knight, co-founder of the Seeing Clearly program, sent a message about Mary Grace to the Physicians for Peace-Philippines staff, who worked with a team of ophthalmologists to find, diagnose and treat the 17-year-old.

"We used a network of relationships, built over the years by Seeing Clearly- Philippines director Dr. Chris Buniel, to enable a completely self-contained, sustained healing of this girl," Knight said.

While ophthalmologists could not save Mary Grace's already impaired vision, an optical implant helped restore her natural appearance – and her sense of self. Thanks to the strong in-country network in the Philippines, Physicians for Peace was able to treat Mary Grace within a matter of weeks and keep the costs very low – less than $200 for the procedure, implant, transportation and prescription eye cream.

"Although the core work of Seeing Clearly is providing eye exams and prescription eyeglasses, we are often in a position to facilitate the correction of more complex problems," thanks to the established in-country network in the Philippines, said Dr. Juan Montero, a Chesapeake, Va.-based retired general and thoracic surgeon and a Seeing Clearly program co-founder.

Photos available upon request.

For more information on the Seeing Clearly program or our work in the Philippines, visit physiciansforpeace.org.

ABOUT PHYSICIANS FOR PEACE

Through effective, hands-on medical education and training, clinical care and donated medical supplies, Physicians for Peace develops long-term, sustainable, replicable, and evidence-based programs to help partner nations build medical capability and capacity to help themselves. Since 1989 Volunteers for the 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization have conducted medical missions in more than 60 countries. With its headquarters in Norfolk, Va., Physicians for Peace has programs in 22 countries and offices in Manila, the Philippines and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. In 2009, the organization celebrated its 20th Anniversary.

For more information, go to: www.physiciansforpeace.org