TWECS eye teams are made up of 10-15 members that include eye surgeons, eye doctors, opticians and lay volunteers who have no optical experience yet have a great desire to help. Each volunteer who joins a project pays their own expenses.
We set up a mobile clinic in a church, a schoolhouse or a town square, anywhere that people from the mountain villages or city barrios can find us.
During a project we can help 4,000 to 5,000 people depending on the number of team members and the number of eyeglasses that are collected and sorted in the eyeglass warehouse at the Burnaby-Lougheed Lions Club.
If an Ophthalmologist is available and a proper operating theatre can be arranged, cataract surgeries are performed.
TWECS is a 100% Volunteer Registered Canadian Charity
About Us.
Our Mission Statement
To collect gently used eyeglasses and distribute these eyeglasses in conjunction with eye exams given by properly trained individuals. The distribution of eyeglasses shall be in developing countries where, because of poverty or lack of availability of eye care services, individuals are unable to obtain eyeglasses and primary eye care.
Who We Are
TWECS is a 100% volunteer registered Canadian charity that began in 1995 with the kind donation of $100 to our founder Dr. Marina Roma-March by the Mount Pleasant Lions Club of Vancouver for an eye project in Tecoman, Mexico. It was the Mount Pleasant Lions Club that encouraged the formation of Third World Eye Care Society. The Club continues today to be a major booster of the Society, raising funds for optical equipment and warehouse supplies. The Sociey receives support internationally thanks to the joint efforts of both the Mount Pleasant Lions Club and the Burnaby Lougheed Lions Club which have raised awareness of TWECS within Lions Club International. Rotary International is another service organization that has generously provided funding to TWECS for the purchase of a portable retinomax. Support from worthy organizations such as Lions Club International, Rotary International, and compassionate companies in the optical industry and many caring volunteers has allowed the Society to provide restored vision to over 80,000 underprivileged people in the Third World.
TWECS is also a chapter of VOSH International (Volunteer Optometric Services to Humanity) a non-profit international organization, founded in 1971, with 31 chapters around the world, that shares our goal in delivering care for a major cause of blindness worldwide …uncorrected refractive error. VOSH invites optometrists and others interested in vision care to be a part of the world of VOSH. Membership in VOSH International entitles you to a VOSH International certificate and one year subscription to the newsletter VOSH.
