| Our Giving Back |
Our International Work
Northeast Volunteer Optometric Services to Humanity (NEVOSH) is a Rhode Island based group of volunteers dedicated to providing care to the needy. We have no political or religious affiliations and are one hundred percent volunteer. Our roots are in eye care but over time we have expanded our services to offer general medical care, medications, dental care, audiology services as well as eye examinations and glasses. We have had a volunteer mission in a new location within Central America every January for almost three decades. Each mission consists of 55-70 volunteers, normally two thirds health professionals and one third without healthcare backgrounds acting as support staff. We also bring third and fourth year optometric and dental students and provide them with some financial support making it possible to expose them to this work at an early and impressionable point in their careers. This is a very important aspect of our work and almost two hundred students have been sponsored by us since our inception. Our group is self funded with each volunteer paying their own way (except the professional school students). We have quietly served roughly 800,000 of the neediest people in Central America over the past thirty years. View our recent Panama mission on the right of the page or click here.
Our Domestic Work
After thirty years of missionary work in Central America many of our members were feeling it was time to do something "back home." It was 2012 and our country was in the fifth year of the deepest economic downturn since the great depression. Everyone has been effected and we all had friends who had lost their jobs. We never could have imagined a need for our type of mission within the United States but the time had come. We partnered with Remote Area Medical (RAM) who had been doing volunteer medical work in the U.S. for many years. A site in Bristol, Tennessee was selected as it was one of the few states in the union that grants out of state doctors a temporary license to come and volunteer within the state. The venue was the Bristol Motor Speedway, the fifth largest stadium structure in the world! The eye, dental, and medical clinics where well equipped allowing us to perform exams similar to the level we would in our offices. The biggest surprise was the type of people we were seeing. Many of us expected to see people coming down from isolated lives in the hills. In reality we saw a lot of middle America, working class people who had just fallen on hard times. The politeness and gratitude rivaled that of any previous mission. It was a pleasure to serve this population. As rewarding as it was helping fellow Americans it was painful to see. As the patients exited the complex following their treatment many stopped off at a mobile food pantry just outside the gate. They where offered a small bag of canned goods and a bag of potatoes before departing. As they continue on their journey hopefully they will remember the volunteers of Northeast VOSH long after the potatoes are gone and the cans are emptied.
We have continued our commitment to volunteer work in the United States working annually in parts of Tennessee and the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia. |
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Please click here to see Dr. Carl A. Sakovits in the ABC6 documentary Medical Missionaries:
Please click here for a video of our recent Panama Mission:
Please click here to go to a video about a Remote Area Medical mission Dr. Carl A. Sakovits participated in.
Please click here for a list of NEVOSH missions 1987 - present | • |
2018 Lidice, Panama |
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2017 Lidice, Panama |
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2016 Penonome, Panama, |
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2015 Grundy |
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2015 Penonome, Panama |
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2014 Las Garzas de Pecora, Panama |
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2013 Bristol, Tennessee |
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2012 Bristol Tennessee |
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2012 Colon and Bastimento, Panama |
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2010 Nuevo Essperanza, El Salvador |
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2009 Nuevo Esperanza, El Salvador |
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2008 Nandaime, Nicaragua |
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2007 Monimbo, Nicaragua |
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2006 Nandasmo, Nicaragua |
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2005 Catarina, Nicaragua |
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2005 Mus, Turkey |
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2004 Nindiri, Nicaragua |
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2003 Jinotepe, Nicaragua |
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2002 Ticuantepe, Nicaragua |
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2001 Monimbo, Nicaragua |
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2000 La Concepción, Nicaragua |
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1999 Masatepe, Nicaragua |
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1998 Niquinohomo, Nicaragua |
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1997 Lake Yohoa, Honduras |
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1996 Jutiapa, Honduras |
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1995 Omoa, Honduras |
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1994 Vera Paz, Guatemala |
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1993 Coatepeque, Guatemala |
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1993 Salama, Guatemala |
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1992 Chimeltenango, Guatemala |
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1991 Chichicastenango, Guatemala |
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1990 Comayagua, Honduras |
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1989 San Manuel, Honduras |
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1988 Omoa, Honduras |
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1987 Santa Rosa, Honduras |
“Through Volunteerism, a Bristol Doctor Sees a Better World” from The Bay blog click here to go to article
How you can help the efforts of Northeast VOSH:Below are four different ways you can support NEVOSH, click any of the following to see more information.
1) Make a Donation Northeast VOSH is a Rhode Island based charitable 501c3 organization. One hundred percent of all donations go directly to providing care to the needy on our missions. We have no paid officers or members. Donations can be made to: Northeast VOSH C/O Dr Carl A. Sakovits, 1180 Hope Street, Bristol RI 02809. 3) Northeast VOSH Charity Golf Tournament Held each year at the Montaup Country Club in Portsmouth Rhode Island the first Monday in October. This is the primary fundraiser for Northeast VOSH. All of the proceeds from this fun event go to providing medications and supplies for the upcoming missions. For more information and registration please call Dr. John Kerwin at 401-245-5825, or e-mail him at drjkerwin@gmail.com. 4) Donate Glasses We accept used glasses of all prescriptions on a year round basis. We ask that the glasses be complete with lenses and a frame in good condition. They can be dropped off at our office anytime during normal office hours.
For more information on Northeast VOSH, click here: NEVOSH
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