Dr Michael Ehrenhaus, MD and his wife Maribel go to the Dominican Republic two to three times a year to perform eye examinations and advanced eye surgery, including corneal transplants, for minimal to no cost to the patients. Dr Mike and Maribel usually plan 5-7 days for each charity mission trip, and while there, perform dozens of surgeries and examinations for the local Dominican population. The
patients that are examined and undergo surgery are all examined based on their need and also on their ability or inability to pay for healthcare. The surgeries and examinations are all performed at Clinica Corominas in Santiago with the help of Sebastian Guzman, MD. All of the surgeries and procedures that are performed utilize the latest technology and techniques that are available anywhere in the world. The charity missions are to help those people that otherwise would have no access to proper eyecare and who otherwise would not enjoy the gift of sight. Additionally, Dr Mike and Maribel donate food to dozens of poor families in Santiago and often help distribute the food personally when they are local for a mission trip. Many of these recipients would not have had food for the next day if it was not for these donations. When they are unable to fly to Santiago, Dr Mike and Ms Gonzalez will purchase food to be distributed to the poor families and send it via boat from New York or have it purchased locally in RD to help the local economy as well. Now, the team of Mike and Maribel (M&M) have joined their forces to create the Fundacion de La Tierra. The purpose of the Fundacion is to strengthen the original goal of helping those less fortunate in the Dominican Republic gain access to eye care and eye surgeries, enable access to better education, and to help provide basic food provisions and household necessities. The Fundacion will also aim to help those less fortunate elsewhere in the Caribbean, to provide eyecare and eye surgery missions with Dr Ehrenhaus, Maribel and Dr Guzman providing the services through generosity and sponsorship.
