volunteer for an eyecare project medical mission
photographers, filmmakers and writers welcome
“We all look forward to working with the U.S. doctors
—it’s a very important time for us—
the hospital changes dramatically when
they arrive and there is excitement everywhere.”
Anna Hovakimyan, AECP Cornea Fellow.
The Armenian EyeCare Project has been traveling to Armenia on twice-yearly medical missions since 1992, returning from their 30th Medical Mission in June of 2007. The next mission is scheduled for June 2008, when many familiar faces—and several new ones—will travel to Armenia. Leading the Mission will be AECP President and Founder Roger Ohanesian. He is typically joined by anywhere from six to 12 ophthalmologists of various subspecialties. The doctors are also often accompanied by volunteer photographers and filmmakers who chronicle the mission.
When the doctors arrive in Armenia their days and nights are already booked tight. Prior to arrival the Project’s Yerevan office schedules meetings, events and visits to out-of-town schools, clinics and other organizations. The U.S. doctors are in great demand by patients, physicians and country officials and they do not have a free minute. While in Armenia doctors work along side the Armenian physicians and teach at all of the Project’s facilities which include the Mobile Eye Hospital; five specialty clinics—Glaucoma, Retina, Corneal-Uveitis, Neuro-Orbital and Low Vision Clinic; a state-of-the-art Education Center with a “Wet Lab” donated by Pfizer; and a Diagnostic Center. In addition, the doctors visit school, nursing homes, soup kitchens and polyclinics—anywhere they are needed.
Commenting on the twice-yearly visits, AECP Cornea (Proctor, San Francisco) Fellow Anna Hovakimyan said, “We all look forward to working with the U.S. doctors—it’s a very important time for us—the hospital changes dramatically when they arrive and there is excitement everywhere.” The EyeCare physicians are just as excited as they look forward to the cases the residents and the fellows present to them and the opportunity for the peer-to-peer exchange on the most recent diagnostic and surgical techniques.
Very eager to see the U.S. doctors are the patients. Once word gets out that the doctors are in town they come in large numbers to line up for appointments. People often wait for hours—sometimes days—hoping to be seen. Cases are identified by the AECP fellows (Armenian ophthalmologists trained in the U.S. by the Project) for the American doctors to see while in-country and pre-registered for examinations.
Very often on these missions U.S. ophthalmologists bring over exciting new techniques to teach the Armenian physicians and giving mission participants an opportunity to work with and learn from the best. In 2004, Dr. Edward J. Holland, Chairman of the Medical Advisory Board of the Eye Bank Association of America, joined an AECP Medical Mission and performed the first cornea transplant surgery in AECP’s Mobile Eye Hospital in Armenia. Dr. Holland has a global reputation for his expertise in the cornea and external disease field.
On the Project’s 26th Medical Mission in June 2005, Dr. Anthony Aldave followed with the country’s first artificial cornea implant. Internationally known with awards and honors too numerous to mention, Dr. Aldave serves as Director of the UCLA Cornea & External Disease Fellowship Program, Director of the Jules Stein Eye Institute Eye Bank.
The new procedure—Keratoprosthesis Surgery—can restore sight and change lives for patients who are blind from Cataracts and for whom the standard Cornea surgeries are unsuccessful. On the last Mission, John Hovanesian and Anna Hovakimyan did a number of these artificial cornea surgeries with this technique and the artificial corneas that Dr. Aldave donated.
There are very few events that will change an individual’s life as profoundly as restoring their sight. And that’s what the AECP medical teams do—together with the Armenian physicians—they bring sight to Armenian eyes and they change lives. And because of the almost 15 years of superior medical education and training provided by the EyeCare Project—in Armenia and in the U.S.—sight is restored every day by the Armenian physicians on the Mobile Eye Hospital and the fellows at the Malayan Ophthalmological Center.
Missions are typically held in May/June and October. The next mission is June 2007. If you would like to join an EyeCare Project Medical Mission as a physician please E-mail us from this link—medicalmissions@eyecareproject.com—with a letter of introduction. Attach your CV and a one-page statement on why you would like to join us on an Ophthalmology Medical Mission to Armenia. If you would like to join the mission as a photographer, filmmaker or writer, please respond to the same E-mail address, attach your CV and include a one-page statement on how you could chronicle the mission for us. We look forward to hearing from you.
To read about our medical missions go to About AECP:
Five-Point Program: Medical Missions.
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