Eye Care International - El Salvador is in need of two (or more) optometrists for their annual mission trip in February 2026!

Their clinic runs for two weeks. You can sign up for either one or two weeks.

Since the early 1990s, Eye Care International - El Salvador has been cooperating with local sponsors to serve the underserved people of El Salvador -- rotating to four general areas in the north, south, east and west. 

The clinic dates are:
Feb. 9-13 (week one), fly-in on Feb. 7, clinic set up afternoon of Feb. 8; fly home Feb. 14, and
Feb. 16-20 (week two); fly-in Feb. 14, fly home Feb. 21.

The cost of the trip is $450/week plus air fare. The cost covers meals from Sat. p.m. until breakfast on the day of flying home.

You will be staying in Salvadoran accommodations (rather than North American style hotels).

This year, the clinic is in the city of Chalatenango. It’s a city of about 20,000 in the northern, hillier region of the country.

The eye care team will meet up in country. They ask that your flight arrive in San Salvador by 2:00pm on Saturday (either Feb 7 or Feb 14). Some people arrive a day early and stay Friday evening at the Quality Inn, a North American-style hotel near the airport. Either way, once you arrive in San Salvador, the team will take the shuttle to the Quality Inn and wait until a bus arrives to take the team to Chalatenango.

What the Team Will Do:

• The team will see about 400 patients a day (it could be more depending on the number of optometrists).
• You will be practicing “back to basics” optometric eye care.
• Each patient gets a full exam, and most will get glasses -- by prescription and readers (used lenses from Lions Clubs). Details of how they prepare glasses are on the Eye Care International - El Salvador website. (They also give out universal lenses if we don’t have a suitable prescription.)
• You will work in conjunction with Salvadoran surgical ophthalmologists regarding cataract, pterygium and other surgeries.

They have ophthalmologists who consult/refer on surgeries and other vision maladies. Surgeries will be done in a San Salvador hospital and follow-up is by an ophthalmologist in Chalatenango. There is no cost to patients for surgeries.

Contact
If you have any questions, please contact the Christian Eye Network at info@christianeye.net or Dr. John Novak, OD, at johnjnovak@gmail.com.

You can find out more about Eye Care International – El Salvador and what they do by going to their website: El Salvador - Eye Care International.