Sharing love, light with QC eye patients
Tzu Chi and the Quezon City Ladies Foundation join hands in helping poor people get free eye screening and surgery.
TZU Chi Medical Foundation Philippines president Dr. Antonio Say and Quezon City Ladies Foundation president Joy Sotto shake hands after leading the signing of an agreement to screen and surgically treat Quezon City residents with eye conditions at the Tzu Chi Eye Center in Sta. Mesa, Manila on 27 February 2026.
PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF JAM DIGO/TCMFP
The Quezon City Ladies Foundation (QCLF) and Tzu Chi Medical Foundation Philippines (TCMFP) have joined hands to help poor city residents with eye problems get free medical services, including surgery.
QCLF, which focuses on empowerment, community support and charitable initiatives, and TCMFP, which provides free eye surgeries through its Tzu Chi Eye Center where volunteer doctors work, signed a memorandum of agreement (MoA) to treat QC eye patients without charge. In the partnership, QCLF will shoulder the cost of pre-surgery laboratory tests and medical clearances of patients while volunteer surgeons of TCEC will perform the operations.
CATARACT patient Leonila Bingco (center), who has cataract in her remaining functional eye, is screened before getting a surgery schedule.
QCLF president Joy Sotto, wife of Quezon City Vice Mayor Gian Sotto, thanked TCMFP for helping the city serve its poor constituents.
“We have never met any Foundation that could address eye issues, not just cataracts. They can address glaucoma, retinal detachment and all kinds of eye problems and we are just so grateful that we were able to give Quezon City constituents this kind of blessing,” Sotto said after the signing of the MoA.
Dr. Say said he is hopeful of the collaboration bringing even more life-changing medical services to the local community.
A QUEZON City resident gets free eyeglasses at the Tzu Chi Eye Center.
A total 439 residents were the initial beneficiary of the TCMFP and QCLF, which brought them to the TCEC by bus, vans and ambulances early in the morning of 27 February. They underwent visual acuity and diagnostic tests before being interviewed by ophthalmologists. After the screening, 120 of the patients were scheduled for surgery while the rests were prescribed with eye drop medicines and reading glasses.
Among the patients was 49-year-old street sweeper Emelinda Acosta, whose one eye could barely see anymore because of cataracts. She complained on headache and blurred vision, but was thankful of the Tzu Chi and QCLF charity project for them.