Little Towels for Eye Care International

Submitted By: Phil Loar

The knitters of Holy Trinity have spent countless hours knitting toallitas, literally “little towels”, donated to Eye Care International (ECI). They join dozens of other volunteers around the United Stated who knit toallitas for ECI.

The idea for knitting toallitas began with Carrie Wherley from Dover, Ohio. Carrie and her husband, Dan Wherley who is an optometrist, volunteered on many eye missions in Latin America. Dan was frustrated with the fact that so many patients complained of eye irritation and it was impossible to provide eye drops to the thousands of patients seen during each mission. Most people in rural Latin America use a rag to wipe their faces and eyes exposed to dust, smoke and sun which contribute to the formation of cataracts and pterygia. Pterygia are pieces of tissue called “carnosidad” in Spanish which grow over the eye as a result of irritation and can be removed surgically when it interferes with vision. Using the same dirty rag to wipe their eyes often causes eye infections. Carrie began knitting toallitas to give to patients with printed instructions to use the toallita only to clean their eyes and only with clean water when they experience irritation. We estimate many thousands of eye infections have been prevented thanks to the education of patients receiving the toallitas.

This year, the toallitas are going to be used on the next ECI mission in March, 2024 in Santa Rosa de Lima in eastern El Salvador. ECI has been conducting eye missions in El Salvador every year beginning in 1995 except for 2021 and 2022 due to Covid-19.