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When Jesus Martinez, a Bethesda eye doctor, distributed eyeglasses to poor recipients in Tumaco, Colombia, he knew his work was only part of a larger international relief effort.

Martinez's 14-member medical team, which returned Monday from the impoverished port town, gave out more than 100 pairs of glasses from American donors and plans to give out hundreds more, including more than 600 pairs from Melwood Horticultural Training Center, an Upper Marlboro nonprofit organization that provides services for people with developmental disabilities.

"It's a beautiful thing," said Martinez. "It's amazing how much impact glasses have. These people can't cook or sew or read… It's a very low-budget way to make an impact on people's lives."

The 10-day relief mission was organized by Lions Clubs, a nationwide nonprofit group that focuses on blindness and other vision problems. The Lions Community Outreach Foundation opened an eyeglass recycling center Oct. 22 at Melwood, where disabled clients wash and dry donated eyeglasses before Lions volunteers sort them by prescription.

"I love my job," said Tina Ritchey, 50, a Melwood client, as she rolled up the sleeves of her sweatshirt and plunged a pair of glasses into a sink full of soapy water. "I like washing… [It's] for the poor."

Carol Swenton, 50, who was sitting at a nearby table with three other Melwood clients who were drying the glasses, agreed.

"It's nice," said Swenton, who said she is happy to be "helping the people. They'll have glasses to wear."

Melwood staff members said the program does as much for their disabled clients as it does for the eyeglasses' recipients.

"It's bringing the community out to Melwood," said Michael Glanz, Melwood's director of day services, who oversees the program. "They're forming new relationships [with Lions volunteers] that they might not have had."

Kelly Randolph, a Lions volunteer from Camp Springs, sat in front of a machine near the Melwood clients. She was holding glasses over a lens in the machine, which read the prescription and displayed it on a screen. Once in a while she found a pair with scratched lenses or chewed frames and set it aside.

Randolph, a former school principal, said she learned how important eyeglasses are after hearing about students who struggled in school because they could not see the blackboards in their classrooms.

"You can't learn to read if you can't see," she said. Lions Clubs efforts to give out eyeglasses and provide vision tests "opens their eyes."

The average resident of Tumaco, a town of about 140,000 people who are descended from slaves, said residents' income is a couple of dollars a day, Martinez said.

Martinez and his group performed hundreds of procedures to treat glaucoma and cataracts, as well as operations to remove growths on the eye caused by exposure to the sun.

But Martinez said he thinks the mission helped Melwood's clients as well.

"They feel like maybe they're not makers, they're takers. But here you give them an opportunity to give…They have an opportunity to give, sort of to switch roles."

E-mail Greg Holzheimer at gholzheimer@gazette.net.