Roger William Lytle Clinic

Chichicastanengo, Guatemala

The grand opening of the Roger William Lytle Eye Clinic in Chichicastanengo, Guatemala, was on March 22, 2018. The Sight for Life Foundation sponsored a team of 11 volunteers to work on this very successful mission trip. That team was able to examine a total of 164 patients and perform 43 surgical procedures in 3 days with 1 surgeon, Dr. William E. Sponsel.
Optometrist Amy Schnegg was able to assist with the patient exams along with our ophthalmic technicians, nurses, and other volunteers. The RWL clinic is housed in the Good Samaritan Hospital in Chichicastenango. We would love to thank the gracious Mark Snoddy and family for providing the space and hospital staff support. 

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The RWL clinic will be a permanent ophthalmic clinic and surgical area for ophthalmic teams worldwide to utilize for their mission work in Guatemala. We are excited that we were able to have another successful team travel to our Roger William Lytle clinic in Chichicastanengo, Guatemala, in February 2019. During that time, we performed over 160 eye exams and over 60 procedures. We also made the acquaintance of a local ophthalmologist, Dr. Julio Deleon. He and his 3 residents assisted us with the patients to make our trip a success. Cinco man returned to see us with vision of 20/30 in his previously blind eye we operated on in February 2018. We then performed cataract surgery on his other eye successfully. It was a blessing to see him walk in our clinic on his own. Patients like him provide us with the drive and determination to continue caring for the people of Guatemala and Malawi.


In April 2019, the board approved a business plan for Dr. Julio Deleon working at our RWL clinic in Chichicastanengo, Guatemala, along with a receptionist to help him run it and keep it organized while the Sponsel Foundation team is away. Dr Julio knows there is great need for eye care in that area and is confident the clinic will be a busy place with plenty of people to help year-round.  Dr. Chacko‘ s group from Arkansas utilized the RWL clinic at the end of July 2019 in correlation with Salud Y Paz. They were able to see 77 patients and perform over 25 surgeries. Mayra S Duran assisted again with the clinic to make it run smoothly. We are so grateful to Dr. Chacko and Salud y Paz for bringing care to the people of the Highlands.