Seeing Through The Eyes Of An Optometrist
Story by Elmien Verster
Elmien Verster is an optometrist that volunteers her specialties to uplift rural communities. In collaboration with her, we were able to help 120 eye care patients in one of our recent projects. And we are excited to share her experience!
“This was my first trip with Flying for Life,” Elmien said. “I went as the registered Optometrist. I did the visual screenings identifying various health conditions related to the eyes and treating them where possible. I also got a sponsor for readymade reading glasses and could help many people with distance and near vision with those particular glasses. We went to various remote clinics in the Limpopo province. The Vhembe District in Limpopo is so vast and the different villages are quite far from each other. Being able to fly with a helicopter to the different areas made such a difference in the number of people we could see. I averaged an amount of +-30 people per day for 4 days (120 people).”
“The need for primary eye care is so big in South Africa,” Elmien continued. “There are very few public hospitals in a country that prescribes glasses to the public and if they do, the waiting list and backlog is so big the people wait very long to be helped with the necessary glasses. During the trip, I visited 4 clinics and every single day there wasn’t enough time to help the growing queue that was waiting to be seen by the Optometrist. Most of the people waiting in the queue had a mature cataract in one or both eyes that may eventually lead to blindness if not removed. But if removed their vision would be restored. It inspired me to know that I can pick up cataracts before it gets to that point and educate the person about it so they can understand what is happening to them. Detecting diseases before it becomes a huge problem is what it’s about for me.”
“Many people received reading glasses that would help with their close work whatever that might look like,” Elmien added. “It inspired me how many people got excited about the fact that they would now be able to read again.
All in all, it was an amazing trip. It often happens that when you go on an outreach thinking you are going to help a certain group of people, you walk away feeling that they have taught you so much more than you could even give them. The people from Venda have so little but are so friendly and happy. Always laughing at something even though, to us coming from the more developed areas it seems like their lives must be grim. I hope to join a trip like this again. Every little bit can make a difference.”
Our passion for giving back is what drives Flying for Life’s workforce. We appreciate the earnest dedication and eagerness of everyone involved in our work. Together, we can go further in our journey of uplifting rural communities!