This is the story of how people working together across North America and especially in Northwestern Ontario are making it possible for patients in Cuba, blinded by cataracts, to see again.

The story begins 8 years ago when a Lions Club in Missouri USA donated a brand new $100,000 state-of-the-art Infinity Vision System to the Lions Eye Care Centre in Mississauga Ontario. After 8 years the machine had not been used. Cataract surgery is normally only done in hospitals in Canada.

Consequently, the Lions Club advertised to its members that the machine was available. It was while in Louisville Kentucky for the USA/Canada Lions Leadership Forum that Angela Sharbot a Lions Club member from Atikokan met a member from Missouri who told her about this equipment. She knew of MEMO in Thunder Bay, a humanitarian organization that recycles used but still useful medical supplies and equipment to needy countries. She contacted MEMO and we agreed to take it and find a place where it would be used to help the blind without cost.

MEMO is a homegrown Thunder Bay charity that is currently working in Zimbabwe, Africa and Cuba providing supplies for their medical systems that are barely functioning due to lack of resources.

MEMO is a registered charitable organization as a ministry under Grace Evangelical Free Church in Thunder Bay. We have sent 108, 40-foot ocean
containers to needy countries around the world.

Cataracts occur when the human eye lens clouds over like a frosted windshield in winter. It usually develops as one grows older. During the corrective procedure the clouded lens is emulsified by ultrasound and then washed away. The removed lens then has to be replaced with an artificial intra-ocular lens in order to restore vision. (more about that later) The procedure requires a trained eye surgeon with the proper facilities to do the surgery.

At this same time, a team from MEMO’s sister organization “Encourage Cuba” of Red Deer, Alberta was going to Cuba to visit doctors and churches MEMO
supports. The pastor of Grace Church, Rev. Steve Mills was part of this team and carried the operator’s manual for the vision system machine to determine if eye surgeons at the Santa Clara Milian Hospital medical school could use the system.

The answer was a resounding yes!
The next problem was how to get the machine from the Lions Eye Care Centre in Mississauga to the MEMO warehouse in Thunder Bay for shipping to Cuba on May 17th this year. Manitoulin Transport as part of its corporate social responsibility program very kindly offered to transport it to Thunder Bay for us. Thank you, Manitoulin Transport, a Canadian trucking company!

And finally, the problem of finding the intra-ocular lenses to replace the patient’s cloudy one during the procedure. Lenses in Canada cost about $3000 and even sourcing them in India on eBay costs about $300, well beyond MEMO’s financial ability. Thunder Bay’s Regional Health Science Centre has agreed to donate expired intra-ocular lenses that strict Canadian regulations will not allow them to implant into patients. Thank you TBRHSC! Lens strength varies from patient to patient so a large variety of lens sizes must be kept on hand by the hospital and in spite of their best attempts, some lens expire before use.

In Cuba if the correct intra-ocular lens is not available because of the limited supply MEMO can provide, donated eye glasses are used to make up the difference. These used but no longer needed eyeglasses are collected by Thunder Bay Lions and given to MEMO for reuse in Zimbabwe and Cuba.

So, this is the rather long story of how many different people and organizations with generous hearts have made it possible to restore sight to the blind in Cuba.

If you would like to be part of this miracle you can donate to MEMO by going to our website, memoministry.org and clicking on “Donate”.

Atikokan Lions Club member Angela Sharbot (Lt) hands over the Infinity Vision System to MEMO’s operations manager Tom Baxter (Rt) while MEMO volunteer Tim Steinhoff (centre) looks on.