Mission trips occur all over the world and serve many different purposes. Thanks to the missionary efforts of Dr. Kevin Wienkers, of the Green Bay Eye Clinic in Oconto Falls, some of the people of Myanmar have received the opportunity to see their world in a different light.
Sponsored by the Wisconsin Academy of Ophthalmology (WAO), the Jan. 19-Feb. 3 mission brought in trained surgeons to perform cataract eye surgeries in an area where poverty is the norm.
“There was some real need and isolation there,” Wienkers said.
Myanmar, once called Burma, is in southeast Asia and is bordered by China, Thailand, India, Laos and Bangladesh. Since 1962, the country has been under military control and isolated from much of the world. But since 2011, the military council controlling the government was dissolved, allowing for interaction with other countries.
“It’s a very austere country, with very austere living. The people really have no money,” Wienkers said.
The mission team, consisting of four surgeons, began its trip just outside the city of Yangon in Sagaing at the Sitagu International Buddhist Missionary Center. The team would perform the surgeries at the Sitagu eye hospital.
While the WAO sponsored the trip, the Lions Club provided the funding for the materials needed for the surgeries. Individuals paid their own airfare, and they brought in much of their own equipment, such as portable microscopes.
“We worked with what we had,” Wienkers said.
Trained assistants screened each patient, choosing those with the most need for corrective surgery. Half the patients in Sitagu were monks, and the rest were residents of Yangon.
Many patients had severe cataracts in both eyes, but only one eye can be corrected at a time. This meant that although sight was restored in one eye, the patients would have to adjust to living with eyesight in one eye for the rest of their lives.
“But even one eye is better than no eyes,” Wienkers said.
Sixty-five patients were treated.
After the first week, the mission team spent a weekend in the city of Bagan. The area is known for its Buddhist history, and at one time 10,000 pagodas and temples decorated the landscape. Many are now in ruins, but the Buddhist lifestyle remains.
The second week brought the team to a remote area of Myanmar called Inle Lake. Each day, the team would step into a small boat and ride for 45 minutes, about 10 miles, to the village.
“The people there live in houses on stilts made of bamboo,” Wienkers said.
There is a small hospital in Inle Lake where the surgeries were performed and 85 patients were treated.
During his visit, Wienkers became more familiar with the culture and especially enjoyed the native food.
“The food was great. It was so good and so healthy. They don’t eat much beef, maybe a little chicken,” he said.
Yet physical nourishment wasn’t the only satisfying part of the experience.
“I came away feeling really fulfilled,” he said. “They were sweet people, and the need was so great.”
Wienkers is a veteran missionary. His first experience was a two-week opportunity in the Philippines in 1990. He spent another two weeks in India in 2009 and traveled to Africa in 2011.
“You come out feeling pretty good that you made some people happy and changed some people’s lives, but you know your job isn’t done,” he said.
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