An international partnership behind Guatemala Brillando has opened the fourth of eight planned eye hospitals in Guatemala, marking another step toward its goal of eliminating treatable blindness for the country’s 17 million people by 2032.
The initiative grew from a realization that short-term mission trips, while valuable, could not meet the nation’s overwhelming need for eye care. After volunteering on several medical missions in Latin America, Dr Doug Villella, an optometrist from Erie, Pennsylvania, sought a lasting solution.
Villella joined forces with Vincent Pescatore, founder of an orphanage in Guatemala’s Petén region, and the result was the building of an eye hospital. Villella also enlisted leaders from the Pennsylvania chapter of Volunteer Optometric Services to Humanity.
A turning point came when Villella met Dr Mariano Yee, then a young ophthalmology resident in Guatemala City. Today, guided by their Catholic faith, Yee and his brothers lead Visualiza, an eye care network.
One brother is an eye surgeon, another oversees the organisation as an architect and MBA, and a fourth manages operations at the newly opened hospital in the Quiché region.
Visualiza now employs 410 people and aims to become a model for expanding eye care in other low- and middle-income countries.
