Our missions to Los Llanos, about an hour outside of Santo Domingo, are fueled by the passion of our local host, Ms. Olga Canto. The hospitality and hard work of her organization, Fundacion Visual Cana Dulce, make it possible to serve patients from all throughout eastern Dominican.

The first two weeks in September were full of focus, teamwork and fun! There were 100 surgeries and over 350 patient evaluations conducted during this teaching mission. You can’t tell by the smiles on their faces, but our dynamic volunteers endured excessive heat, sickness, and even IV’s to keep them going! They were all absolutely amazing! Our heartfelt thanks to Team September: Drs. Penny Asbell, Tatiana Deveney, Joshua Little, Donovan Reed and Darrell Williams for your skills and stamina, along with Certified Ophthalmic Technicians Karen Bachman and Tracy Cruz, and volunteers Austin Couvillion, Jody Fleming, Lisa Fields, Ann Ruiz for joining Dr. Jeff Rutgard and ED Darrah Kauhane.

HEF has formalized it’s MSICS trainings and now offers two 10-day teaching missions in the Dominican Republic per year. If you would like to join the waiting list to learn from our renowned MSICS surgeon, HEF’s full-time humanitarian Mission Director, Dr. Rutgard, contact us today. Dr. Jeff’s patience, compassion and dedication inspire many to join the fight against curable blindness. Volunteer Lisa put this slideshow together to summarize this program: https://vimeo.com/299334951.

Doctors, nurses, and techs interested in volunteering, please inquire about availability in 2019. Once you join us for an adventure, we hope you’ll catch the mission bug and be back to serve with us in other locations around the world.