On Monday 22nd July twelve ODA Members arrived in Fiji to join ODA’s inaugral international outreach project. The team's accomodation is being hosted by the College of Theology and Evangelism Fiji with a base camp on the outskirts of Lautoka, the second largest city in Fiji. With suitcases full of donated pre-cut prescription glasses ranging from -6.00 to +6.00, dispensing and screening tools, frames and a range of uncut astigmatic lenses, the team was eager to use their skills to provide eyecare to the Fijian community, many of whom have never experienced an eye test. The project is taking place thanks to a collaboration with a local clinic "Opticare - The Eye Centre" and Fijian Dispensing Optician, Sylvester Prasad. Prior to the project, the expectation was set that the team would screen approximately 300 patients over the course of 4 days...a number that was surpassed after only the second day.
Here is an account of the experience so far from one of the team - Luke Yong;
Our first day took us to Rakiraki Methodist Mission School, a primary school 2 hours drive away nestled on a hillside with ocean views. We were greeted at the school with the smiling faces of Year 1 and 2 primary school kids eager to have their first ever eye tests.
For many of the team, this would be our first experience with vision screening and though initially nerving, our dispensing and in-store experience kicked in and we quickly settled in for the busy day ahead. Our two testing rooms were set up with stations to test for Distance Vision, Reading Vision and Colour vision with an optical dispenser assigned to each station. If a vision problem was found, we referred onto our optometrist who would perform a refraction and then a handover to our team in a dedicated dispensing room to finalise the frame selection and dispense with one of our pre-cut glasses or in some cases, an immediate cut and fit with an edger our local liaison had brought along.
Day one flew by with our hearts full having seen 200 people including students and their families and 35 pairs of glasses dispensed - A good nights sleep awaited us!
We were awoken for our second morning in Fiji by the sounds of crowing roosters and barking dogs. The initial plan would not be dissimilar to the previous day: another 2 hours in our minibus to the town of Tavua to set up at Tavua District Primary and Secondary School to help the teenage students struggling to see in the classroom. Our morning progressed steadily, however unbeknownst to us, word of our clinic had quickly spread to the local villages. We came back from lunch to a thrall of locals young and old all lined up waiting to have their eyes tested... this was not part of the plan. But planned or not, we were ready to jump into action. An announcement was made by the school principal to ask the community for patience and to clarify that the priority would be given to the children first and foremost, but the locals would all be seen too in due time.
514 vision screenings later and nearly 200 pairs of glasses dispensed, we had nearly exhausted our glasses supplies for the day. Not unlike a day in practice, the day had exceeded our expectations and our “walk-ins” had kept us busy in the best way possible. Our interactions with the locals were nothing short but amazing - team members were invited back to local homes for dinner (which we politely declined), hugs and handshakes were plentiful and the level of gratitude, kindness and hospitality shown made it more than worthwhile.
Two days down - Two to go!
This ODA project has been made possible thanks to the twelve ODA Member Volunteers that have generously donated their time and skills, Opticare - The Eye Centre Fiji, Christian Helps Fiji and ODA's various project sponsors including:
Hoya Australia, CR Labs, Tokai Optical, Opticare, ProOptics, ZEISS, Hilco Vision, ACOD, Specsavers and Teachers Eyecare.
Comments