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The Merida Foundation is a 501(c)(3) charitable corporation originally founded and funded by Dorothy and Rudy Lemke in December 2003 to benefit the descendants of the ancient Mayan people of Mexican’s Yucatan Peninsula. Since 1970’s, now retired optician, Dorothy Lemke has been providing eyeglasses to the poor, visually impaired people in the rural villages surrounding the city of Merida.

The Merida Foundation makes 2 or 3 trips to Merida every year, there is always at least one board member on each visit as well as other contributors to the foundation who want to help distribute glasses and see the nutrition sites.  We distribute 900 to 1,200 pairs of glasses each trip to people in the villages surrounding Merida.  We travel to villages within an approximately 50-mile radius of Merida.

Since its inception, the Merida Foundation has also funded nutrition projects for undernourished school children in the region. Today, the foundation is feeding approximately 700 hungry children one nutritious meal each school day at nine nutrition sites.

Please fill-out the contact form below if you have any questions or resources for our programs.