By sharing this annual report with you, we want to give you an overview of the activities that IRIS Mundial has accomplished during the year 2022. We are proud of the work done by IRIS Mundial, its members, employees, volunteers and partners. Their unwavering commitment contributes day after day to enable the most disadvantaged people to better see the world.
The year 2024 got off to a flying start with a mission to Gabon in January. A multidisciplinary team of Canadian volunteers set out to provide vision care at the renowned Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Lambaréné, Gabon. It was an intense but gratifying mission, enabling our volunteers to provide care and eyewear to over 1,900 people! After a forced halt due to the pandemic, this mission put IRIS Mundial back on track. Indeed, as soon as we returned from Gabon, another one-time project took shape and came to life. Our volunteers outdid themselves once again, so that we were ready to leave for Podor, Senegal in January 2025.
In terms of implementation of our ongoing programs, we continued to deliver our online training and mentoring sessions. These sessions were aimed at team members of our Program for the Prevention and Fight against Blindness (PPFB) in St. Louis, Senegal, and also aimed at PPFB team members in Limbe, Haiti, whenever the internet connection allowed. Once again this year, the program in Senegal was able to provide hundreds of people with screening, a thorough eye exam and, if necessary, eye surgery. As for the Limbe PPFB in Haiti, the socio-political situation remains extremely complicated, but despite this, our partner CEDI-VE has been able to meet a large majority of its goals by offering screening exams at its clinic as well as in-depth exams by an ophthalmologist who comes once a month whenever possible. Unfortunately, the mobile clinics have not yet been able to resume. Our support for the Espérance et Vie clinic intensified in 2024, becoming more permanent, enabling us to say that a new PPFB in Terrier-Rouge has been born! The beginnings of a PPFB in Lambaréné, Gabon, also took shape this year. Last but not least, a number of interesting partnership and support opportunities in Cuba came to fruition in 2024, opening the door to exciting prospects for collaboration in that country!
The year 2024 was also an opportunity to open the discussion to identify new target groups that we could help within our Canadian operations.
We warmly thank our many partners, collaborators, members, volunteers, administrators, donors and funders for their support and precious collaboration.
IRIS Mundial has begun 2025 with an intensity that reflects our desire to become ever more involved in helping vulnerable populations.