The Haiti Eye Clinic represents HPUMC's longest-running, global partnership. HPUMC took its first medical mission trip to Haiti in 1976. Stricken by the extreme need and utter lack of supplies and expertise in Haiti, U.S. doctors volunteered time, money and supplies to the many trips that HPUMC led over the years.

An Eye Clinic was built in 1985, and a Surgery Building completed in 1999. The Clinic and Surgery are now staffed by Haitian doctors supported in part by HPUMC Global Outreach. These facilities provide special eye care weekly instead of semi-annually or whenever our medical teams were able to go.

A new building containing hospital beds for post-op patients, a workroom for eyeglasses, and living quarters for the grounds-keeper and his family have expanded the operations of the clinic. This medical complex has become a model for other missions in Haiti.

Due to political unrest over the last few years, medical teams have been unable to reach Haiti. In October 2007, a small team, including of Dr. Kenneth Foree and his wife, Lila, who have led the charge for the Haiti mission for more than 30 years, was able to return to Haiti to assess the condition of the clinic. The team was surprised to find the clinic in great shape and still operational. HPUMC hopes to begin sending regular medical teams beginning October 2008 to provide training, consultation, and support for the Haitian physicians and the Methodist Church of Haiti.

Please keep this extraorinary ministry and all those whose love and energy have sustained it in your prayers.

For more info, contact Dr. Kenneth & Lila Foree at lilaforee@att.net or 214.341.3368.