Tree-Land Foundation, Inc. - 501(c)(3) Not-For-Profit Public Charity, FEIN 52-1926101
75% of the world has bad eyesight and needs glasses
that half (3 billion people) can't afford or acquire.
We establish vision clinics for underserved populations using custom technology to instantly diagnose and accurately correct eyesight in just minutes using recycled eyeglasses . . . for free!
The GLOBAL re-VISION Network
we establish low-cost, permanent, charitable vision clinics
The easily-trained local technicians in our clinics use, advanced electronic diagnostic technology, a specially-developed computer system, and donated, RECYCLED eyeglasses to accurately dispense prescription eyeglasses to economically disadvantaged people in only about 5 minutes per person.
Patients are quickly and accurately diagnosed and receive eyeglasses from an inventory maintained by the clinic and donated by Lion's Clubs and you.
In many countries, new glasses can cost more than a week's wages. Mexican citizens from lower socioeconomic levels can participate in a variety of government-provided DIF programs (DIF is the state's health and social services agency). DIF Yucatán was our collaborating partner in the establishment of our first clinic.
The GLOBAL re-VISION Network's model Clinic of Visual Health "See Well to Live Better" opened in Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico on February 1, 2007, and is still operating today. We provided the concept, electronic diagnostic equipment, the computer and special operating program, set-up, installation, and worker training. 80,000 pairs of used eyeglasses and cases were sent from the U.S. to supply the clinic. DIF Yucatán provided the clinic facility, renovations, and employs full-time workers. In addition, local medical college nursing students serve 6-month internships working in the clinic.
Since 2007, the state of Yucatán has added a second, mobile clinic. Bascom-Palmer Eye Institute opened a clinic in Miami, Florida, and a mission clinic in Haiti. Three clinics were established in collaboration with 3 LAC+USC Hospitals (Los Angeles County + University of Southern California) in 2012. Three additional clinics in Chetumal, Playa del Carmen, and Cancun, Mexico also have been established.
Thus far, our technology and clinics have provided between 100,000 and 200,000 disadvantaged people with free eyeglasses.
How It Works
Donate Your Used Eyeglasses
Donate Your Used Eyeglasses
Donate Your Used Eyeglasses
1. Mail them to: GLOBAL re-VISION Network
P.O. Box 535
Myersville, Maryland 21773
Mail in a small postal box or padded envelope. We'll be most grateful if you include a dollar-per-pair to help defray processing and shipping costs to clinic(s).
2. Maryland residents: put them into a Lions Eyeglass Collection Box at any local optometrist's office.
3. If your Lions Club, Rotary Club, Church, School, Scout, Civic, or Service Organization would like to collect glasses, please email RMartin@globalrevision.org for more details.
Success Students Sort glasses
Donate Your Used Eyeglasses
Donate Your Used Eyeglasses
SUCCESS students sort, count, and box the donated eyeglasses. SUCCESS is a 3-year job-and-life skills training program for 18-21-year-old differently-abled students sponsored by Frederick County (Maryland) Public Schools. Since 2001, Bob Martin has worked with the students 30-35 days each school year to sort, count, and box the used eyeglasses for shipping to clinics.
D. M. Bowman Warehouses Them
Donate Your Used Eyeglasses
AGENCIA ADUANAL CERVERA - importer
Absolutely vital to The GLOBAL re-VISION Network's ability to create and supply new and existing clinics is our ability to warehouse and ship eyeglasses. We have spent substantial amounts of time and resources finding the best collaborators and partners available. Central to this need has been one of America's top-rated trucking companies, the D.M. Bowman Company of Hagerstown, Maryland. (www.DMBowman.com). They have generously provided all of our warehousing, pick-up and delivery needs. They have moved all sizes of shipments both short and long distances.
AGENCIA ADUANAL CERVERA - importer
AGENCIA ADUANAL CERVERA - importer
AGENCIA ADUANAL CERVERA - importer
Outside the U.S. we have the great fortune to have the assistance and friendship of Hiram Cervera the head of Agencia Aduanal Cervera, customs brokers in Progreso, Mérida, and Cancun, Mexico (www.cervera.com.mx). Hiram is our liaison with domestic and foreign government customs agencies, shipping, trucking, and port companies.
THE CLINIC INVENTORIES THEM
AGENCIA ADUANAL CERVERA - importer
THE CLINIC INVENTORIES THEM
Eyeglasses received at the clinic are first cleaned and sterilized. Then each pair is analyzed using a Lensometer-a device that electronically "reads" the prescription of an eyeglasses' lens. That information is then transmitted-to-and-stored in the computer's memory. The computer automatically assigns a warehouse storage location for each pair of eyeglasses so it can later be located and retrieved when a patient needs a pair with that specific prescription.
TECHNICIANS DISPENSE THEM
AGENCIA ADUANAL CERVERA - importer
THE CLINIC INVENTORIES THEM
Patient vision prescriptions are instantly and accurately determined using an Auto Refractor - a device that electronically "photographs" the inside shape of an eyeball and calculates the eyeglasses prescription needed to correct vision in that eye. The patient's prescription is entered into the computer which then displays the storage location(s) of all inventoried eyeglasses meeting that patient's exact need. The glasses are retrieved from storage and adjusted to the patient. The entire process takes only minutes per person. BIG smiles AND tears of gratitude occur daily at the Clinica.
Additional Benefits
Cataract, hypertension, and diabetes Screening, too!
We create GLOBAL re-VISION clinics in partnership with public and private healthcare agencies to establish permanent charitable vision clinics. The clinics' goal is to use our system to quickly and accurately distribute free recycled eyeglasses to correct refractive errors. Inasmuch as these clinics provide a remedy for 90-95% of all vision impairments, it is our conviction that ministering to the "other 5-10%" should become the purview of our clinic partner. Once established, the clinics are "gifted-to" and administered by our healthcare partner. In Mérida, that is DIF Yucatán.
Very soon after the Mérida clinic began seeing patients on February 1, 2007, DIF Yucatán administrators recognized that the clinic could also provide a locale to screen patients for cataracts, and they began doing so later in the year. The government took the initiative to find doctors, funding, and hospital facilities principally because the clinic provided them with a logical screening venue. As a result, 26 people received free cataract surgeries in 2007. Many more will in the coming years.
Cataracts are the world's number 2 vision impairment following refractive error insofar as the number of people afflicted globally. When clinics remedy BOTH refractive errors AND cataracts, they are mitigating almost 98% of all the vision impairments afflicting the poor.
The clinic technicians also recognized in 2010 that patients with high blood pressure were more likely to receive inaccurate readings for vision prescriptions. Because they are co-located with other health services at the clinic, patients can also be referred for blood pressure checks and treatment as well.
It also was observed by clinic technicians that some older patients were returning to the clinic for a different prescription because of rapid changes in their vision. The cause, they discovered, was undiagnosed diabetes. It can cause diabetic retinopathy and result in vision changes. Many clinic patients receive routine finger-stick blood sugar tests for diabetes. They, too, are referred to doctors for treatment.