A Team Indeed

To date we have had two full days of clinics resulting in 1,183 people registered and had eye exams.  Of the 1,183 eye exams, several resulted in no prescription needed.  Of the remaining eye exams, 284 pairs of eyeglasses were dispensed.  Some people received two pairs of glasses; a pair for reading and a pair for distance.  Fifty-six special order eyeglasses were prepared for prescriptions we could not fill.  Frames were fitted to the people and the lenses will purchased locally by TWECS for the new owner to pick up at a predetermined location within two weeks.

Of the team of 19, seven are on a TWECS project for the first time.  The other 12 are on either their second, third, or fourth except for Derrick and Marina, where this is project number 23.

First timer, Sharyn, a bookkeeper from Mill Bay, B.C. has found the experience to be "overwhelming, rewarding, and well worth it".  She went on to share that she was nervous working with the language barrier and that teachers helped all day to make the experience easier.  "The whole process was rewarding from start to finish," Sharyn added.

Marina and Derrick are the organizers.  If a team member suggests a solution to an impending problem, they are quick to accept the idea if it makes the process  run smooth and efficient.  For example, adding numbers

outside classroom doors so the optometrist can send a patient to #4 rather than trying to give complicated directions.

Often it is not known how the clinic will be set up until we arrive.  Will it be one big room or several small rooms.  Are the rooms close in proximity or are they a distance apart? Are there tables?  Are there chairs?  Chairs or benches are a must for the elderly to have a place to wait.  Sometimes the wait can be hours, depending on the number of people that show up.  The team is quick to adapt to make it happen and run smoothly.

Katie, also a first timer and an optician/manager from

Whistler says, "We are so lucky to live in Canada. People [in Ecuador] are so happy even though they are poor.  They do not have material items, they needed to come to us.

At least one man at the clinic had never had an eye exam.  This was his first. TWECS made it possible for the exam and the ability to provide glasses for better vision.

"I feel so fortunate to come," Katie adds.  "I saved for a whole year."

The Importance of Translators

Taking registrations with a high school student as interpreter.

Just a couple of the team speaks Spanish fluently — at least my definition of fluent. Having translators is a key element to the success of the project once we are on site.  The registration forms consist of questions like name, age, medications, do you have problems with reading or with distance sight.  Listening to a foreign accent and understanding their name, let alone spell it correctly, is a challenge.

The translators hasten the process; without them it is likely we could only see half or less than half of the people on each clinic day. Imagine the eye chart as your know it— the letters of the alphabet ranging from large letters to minute.  Each language pronounces the letter A their way.  It would be very difficult for the volunteers conducting the visual acuity tests to understand each person.  Couple the language barrier with extremely shy patients who speak so very softly and the testers would never hear them.  

The chart used for the project visual acuity test is a series of E's facing left, right, up or

Angel, our bus driver and translator.

down.  The patients indicate with their hand which direction the E is facing.

After visual acuity testing the patient moves to triage; here it is decided if they need glasses or not, or further testing.  Some patients need dilation drops in their eyes.  The interpreters are able to clearly and explain that he or she will have to wait a specific amount of time and have their eyes tested at another station - autorefraction.  

Visual acuity station.

From autorefraction, patients move along to special testing. If a patient moves on to special testing, the interpreters again are paramount in explaining what is happening and what is going to happen next.  This eases any apprehension the patients may have during their exam. I could only imagine how comforting it is to have a person speak your language in order to convey any concerns or instructions - English and Spanish.

From special testing, patients will move to dispensing.  This is where they receive their new glasses, if we have a pair matching the prescription.  If not, on this project, they will be a special order.  When a special order is needed, the interpreter is able to explain that the eyeglasses will be available in a week.  They are fitted with a frame to accompany the prescription for filling.

We have had two amazing clinic days.  We have had exceptional translaters: parents, teachers, Rotary members, high school children taking English, and our bus driver, Angel.

Katie, an optitian, was working with an elderly lady.  This lady was just fitted with a pair

Katie, one of our optitians.

 of glasses.  
"She grasped my hands", Katie explained, "and looked me in the eye and spoke Spanish.  I did not understand."
"The translator did, and she came over", she said.  
This is what the elderly woman humbly shared with Katie —  "God is smiling and his light shines down on you."

A Note From Marina

On Friday October 18th I was informed by our Rotary hosts in Ecuador that  the Ministry of Health in Ecuador, specifically one woman, had denied our request for approval for clearance of our eyeglasses and equipment.  The reason pupillary distance.  In the next 36 hours between watching Evan and Emma play in a baseball tournament, Derrick and I were forced to write an appeal to the Ministry citing studies from the World Health

Marina

Organization and various epidemiological journals that  support the use of ready made glasses in developing countries.  We were teased by the promise of a response on Monday which turned to Tuesday, then Wednesday, then Thursday and still no response on Friday October 25th.  Meanwhile 19 volunteers from Newfoundland to Nanaimo are anxiously preparing for the eye care mission set to depart from Vancouver in 4 days.  At this point Derrick and I had to make the difficult decision of cancelling the project or running the border with our eyeglasses.   IF we take the risk, 10,000 eyeglasses could be held in customs indefinitely or we would

Ten thousand eyeglasses

have to pay thousands of dollars in duty.  As well 19 team volunteers would be very disappointed.

On Monday October 21, we began making phone calls in the hope of salvaging this project.  After communication with the Latin Division of the Ministry of  Foreign Affairs, John Bairds Office, we were advised that there was nothing they could do to help us.  The Ministry of Foreign Affairs contacted the Canadian Embassy in Quito Ecuador and despite their efforts, there was nothing they could do to change the mind of this one woman.  The Ambassador of Ecuador in Ottawa, despite his contacts in the Ministry could do nothing to change the decision of this one woman as well.

Loading boxes for flight to Ecuador

On Sunday October 27 at 8:30pm we  finally received an email  that this woman in the  Ministry had denied our appeal.  The only reason given –TECHNICAL  reasons.
Derrick and I thought and thought and prayed and prayed throughout the day.  We had no plan B and the team had no idea what was happening.  We continued to pack the boxes as if we had approval from the Ministry.  We had no idea what would happen in customs at Quito and therefore could not finalize accommodations or the clinic itinerary in Quito.
Derrick and I decided that at the very least if we had all our equipment we could still proceed with our project.  The plan would be to buy glasses for patients in Ecuador using donations

Clearing customs in Ecuador - we were a convoy.

raised by team members.

So on Monday October 28 our team packed the eyeglasses and medications in18 boxes.  I asked all team members to bring a small suitcase to the airport half filled with clothes we could give away as donation.  The rest of the suitcase would be filled with equipment spread out amongst the luggage.  We also placed labels on all the boxes stating that the boxes had no monetary value and were for the relief of the blind.

Tim working with the autorefractor.

On October 29th, the day of our departure, Derrick and I spent most of the day getting documents notarized and then visiting the Consul General of Ecuador to seal  the documents.

On Wednesday October 30 at three o’clock in the morning, our team met at the airport and packed all equipment into the suitcases.

The flight from Houston to Quito was very nerve racking.  During

the flight I prepared a few words for the customs agent.  Essentially it was a begging speech and the plan was to claim ignorance and beg for forgiveness.  Team members were assigned a luggage or a box.

 

When we arrived at Quito Airport at 11pm, we had the team members assigned with luggage (all our equipment) to go through customs as tourists.  Of the five that were assigned, 2 were questioned and had a baggage search by customs.  They were eventually allowed to go through.  Now we knew we could do the project with or without the glasses.  We were THRILLED!
Now came the boxes, when you have 18 boxes it is hard to get through inconspicuously.  Fortunately we remained calm and only 3 boxes were inspected.  In half an hour our whole team with our 10,000 eye glasses and equipment passed through!!!!!
The last three weeks have been agonizing and incredibly difficult and many times we had to ask ourselves if  we can continue doing this.  Certainly it would have been easier to just cancel the project immediately and  have our lives back.
But the beautiful children of Ecuador and the mother crying because her blind son can now see and the team members who endure long bus rides, lack of sleep, who work together as a team  to serve those less fortunate…all this makes it worth it.

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Hola Ecuador!

We have arrived in Quito! Nineteen of us have made our way from coast-to-coast Canada: Victoria, Mill Bay, Nanaimo, North Vancouver, Terrace, Prince George, Edmonton, and believe it or not Newfoundland, to come together for the Ecuador project.  We have

Eyeglasses ready for flight

on our team optometrists, opticians, retired folks, an animal nutritionist, a bookkeper, a student, a Guy Friday, and me.  The people I am traveling  with are amazing.  For the majority, this is not their first project and they openly declare it will not be their last.

Sitting with Marina and Derrick after dinner last night, they revealed that this project almost came to a grinding halt on October 18, just days before departing Canada.  It is nothing short of amazing that the tenacious spirit and the never-give-up drive that lives within both Marina and Derrick made this project a reality.  Suffice it to say that they spent countless hours phoning and emailing numerous people to keep this project moving forward.  It was not

Preparing for Customs

until we cleared customs and we were actually at the school attending to the children did they believe that nothing can stop us now.

I remember at one point, in the airport and after clearing customs, hearing Derrick laughing deliriously with relief that we had cleared.

October 30, the B.C. people met at YVR at 3:00 A.M. This is where we labeled boxes and packed equipment into suitcases.  In total, for the project, we transported twenty-seven pieces of luggage.  This did not include any personal effects.  Everyone stepped up and pitched in to collect trolleys, lift boxes, stand in lines, lift the boxes again and so on. Our itinerary took us from Vancouver to Houston, Houston to Quito.  We had a four-hour lay over  and a slight delay leaving Houston.  We were finally in the air about 6:30 P.M. and landed in Quito near midnight.  Here we collected our boxes and luggage and convoyed through customs to a bus for transport to our hotel an hour's drive away.  It felt as though we were in the middle of nowhere and apparently we were.  It was so dark we could seen nothing.

After photocopying our passports the hotel staff assigned us to our rooms.  They were

Children waiting for us

clean and a welcome sight for tired bodies.  We fell into bed for a three-hour nap.  Alarms were set for 5:00 A.M. for a much needed shower before leaving at 6:00 A.M.

Angel, our bus driver was waiting to load our luggage.  He even had bottles of water, a welcome handout considering that breakfast was still three hours away.  The drive was scenic.  We encountered more hair-pin curves that I have experienced in my life.  We descended through rural areas, passed through towns, ascended and descended again.  There is no lack of road-side eateries for the locals.  Dogs run free.  Cows, tethered to god knows what, dotted the roadside.

We arrived at the school in El Placer.  The children were waiting.  Derrick let us know this

Eye examination

was the first time that we were arriving at a location with no time to set up before the people arrived.  We, I have to admit, we were somewhat disorganized.  In no time we had translators helping with registration, the visual acuity stations were set up and the flow started.  Registration, visual acuity, triage to auto refraction and special testing or they are finished and free to go.  Of those needing special testing, once they have seen the doctor they then head to  dispensing.

We tested 681 and dispensed 30 pairs of glasses.

It was a very long day.  We were all happy to get to the Hotel Grand Santo Domingo to shower and eat dinner.  At dinner, Marina and Derrick gave their heartfelt thanks for the successful day considering the chaos at the start.

In The Beginning ...

… there was but a simple idea — eyeglasses and eye care for the underprivileged in third-world countries.  That was 1994.  Today, 14 countries and 22 projects later, volunteers are preparing to transport 10,000 pairs of eyeglasses to Ecuador.

 Marina  and Austin check eyeglasses destined for Ecuador.

Dr. Marina Roma-March is an optometrist and the founder of the Third World Eye Care Society (TWECS), Vancouver, B.C.  She is responsible for the logistics and the volunteers of TWECS projects that deliver eyeglasses to tens of thousands of underprivileged in third-world countries: Africa, Ethiopia, Mexico, Nicaragua, the Philippines and Viet Nam, to name a few.

In the wee hours on the morning of October 30, a team of 19 will meet at YVR to do the last minute preparations before checking in and boarding United Airlines Flight 337 to Quito, Ecuador.

Alf manages the warehouse in Burnaby, B.C.

Each TWECS project takes a year of planning and preparation. It is no small feat to collect, test, clean, sort and package the eyeglasses needed to take on each mission.  It is no small task to work with language barriers, politics, and cultural differences to ensure volunteers are safe and the eyeglasses are dispensed to the underprivileged.  Above all, it is time consuming.

Third World Eye Care Society volunteers donate their time in one, or both, of two ways: at the warehouse sorting and boxing eyeglasses, and travelling to a third-world country.

Volunteers who travel with the project donate their time (away from work and family) and pay an average of $2,000 or more to cover their airfare and accommodation.  Added to these costs are vaccinations and medications required when travelling to some of the countries. 

Katherine preparing glasses for the project.

Volunteers at the warehouse donate a few hours on Monday nights focusing on the eyeglasses. 

TWECS also collects monetary donations to pay for warehouse supplies and to offset the costs of the foreign projects.  Your $5, $10, $20 or $50 will add up to make a 2014 project possible. Please donate today.

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