Bula (Hello)!
For those following our journey in Fiji, it wouldn't be fair to end the story after day two. So to continue on from our last blog, ODA Volunteer Luke Yong continues with his first hand account below...
Days 3 and 4 of the ODA Fiji Outreach Project
"Increasingly sleep deprived and jetlagged, you wouldn’t blame our team members if they were starting to feel the burden of our 6.30am departures (the equivalent to 2.30am for our Western Australia contingent). On the contrary however, our team was even more energised and riding the high of what we had achieved as a team in the prior days. From the unexpected waves of patients we had seen, we realised that there was a real need for healthcare services in Fiji. The community was in dire need of help and we were here to provide it - which is what we all signed up for in the first place.
Approximately 40% of the population in Fiji live below the poverty line. This means that they survive off less than $2.15 a day. Many simply don’t have enough money for their daily essentials like food and electricity let alone having to pay for eye tests and glasses.
Our destination on day 3 was a two hour drive to an “interior” village in the Tavua region of Western Fiji. Remote and sheltered from outsiders, we travelled through dense bushland, over river crossings and dodged cattle whilst hoping that our vehicles would survive the bumpy off-roading. We were heavily rewarded when almost out of nowhere, a clearing appeared and we arrived at Nadelei Catholic School. Here, we only had one large classroom to set up our screening stations and a separate dispensing room. Our lens edger, frame heater and digital vertometer were all set up outside connected to a power generator as the village had a power outage. We organised ourselves with 4 snellen charts in parallel and had a rolling screening system in place.
Our testing found that many children had 6/6 vision - however we did pickup several cases of high hyperopia and astigmatism which we were able to immediately dispense glasses for. A highlight of the trip was helping a young girl pick out her first pair of glasses that perfectly matched her school uniform. Safe to say, she wore her glasses right out the door!
Whilst testing the kids, cars had been steadily arriving outside the school, some carrying elderly in wheelchairs and others having travelled hours from other villages to visit our mobile clinic. Our team continued working like a well oiled machine and before we knew it, we had completed 210 vision screenings and dispensed 74 pairs of glasses. The day finished a little earlier than our previous clinics which allowed us a chance to change from optical dispensers to wannabe footy players and dance instructors. We took advantage of the downtime and immersed ourselves in our surroundings, interacting with the kids and enjoying the contagious laughter that accompanied the running races, arm wrestles and dancing.
Later that night, we were informed that our accommodation at the College of Theology and Evangelism Fiji was also home to 18 bible college students, some of whom were having trouble with their vision. Never fear, dispensers are here - we quickly setup in our common room kitchen and began our 9pm Thursday “late night trading”: 12 pairs of glasses later, it was time for bed.
Our final day and destination for the outreach did not disappoint. Nadiri Bay Khalsa School is a tiny school of 27 students hidden away right in front of the South Pacific Ocean facing the reef break. Not a bad view for our clinic for the day! In the lead up to organising this school visit, our local liaisons had initially been turned away as the school headmaster felt that his students could not afford to miss a day of education. However, after explaining that one day of missed school would pale in comparison to years of uncorrected vision, the headmaster graciously approved our visit.
This allowed us to conduct another 300 odd screenings and dispense 73 pairs of glasses to the surrounding community.
Being a smaller school, the day was a much more intimate affair. By lunch time, the kids all knew our names and us theirs. We danced, sang, had thumb wars and played soccer and touch footy on the beach. We were presented with fresh coconuts by machete wielding children and were humbled by the generosity and appreciation of the Fijian people. None of us wanted the day to end. Alas, the sky opened up and rain arrived signalling that it was time for us to leave. We gave our final goodbye hugs, high-fives and dabs, and with raindrops (& tears) streaming down our faces we boarded our minibus and waved goodbye, all of us vowing to come back soon.
Across the 4 days, the ODA Fiji Outreach Project screened approximately 1,300 people and dispensed 407 pairs of glasses. We ran out of precut lenses in some prescriptions and our lens edger broke down, so lenses had to be hand-edged from their 75mm blanks.
A broken down van and ute and “Fiji time” meant that each day was unpredictable, yet every hiccup seemed to add to the adventure. Throughout the trip there was not a single complaint from the team. We looked out for one another and banded together over our shared love of soy-lattes, 90’s Karaoke and most importantly our passion for optics and the privilege to provide a service to the less fortunate and make a difference".
The ODA Team has now arrived back in Australia with new friends, full hearts and memories to last a lifetime. We would like to extend our gratitude to Opticare - The Eye Centre PTE Ltd which is an eye clinic in Fiji. It was established to provide professional eye care and also in the process help less fortunate people who are unable to pay for the cost of eye examinations. The clinic belongs to Ambassadors for Christ South Pacific and is a division of its charity arm Christian Helps.
The staff at Opticare - The Eye Centre PTE Ltd and Christian Helps were both heavily involved in the preparation and implementation of this project and without them, it would not have been possible. Special mentions go to Sylvester Prasad (Dispensing Optician representing Opticare - The Eye Centre PTE Ltd) and Nathan Adams (Lecturer & Administrator of Ambassadors of Christ South Pacific). Thank you for making us feel so welcome and for your tireless organising. And a big shout out to Naushad our driver for keeping us safe and making sure the team got their coffee fix!
Thank you to ODA's various project sponsors including:
Hoya Australia, CR Labs, Tokai Optical, Opticare, ProOptics, ZEISS, Hilco Vision, ACOD, Specsavers and Teachers Eyecare.
Final thanks go to these ODA Member Volunteers - 10 Optical Dispensers and 2 Optometrists, that generously donated their time and skills including:
Lyn Simeon (NSW), Linden McNeill (WA), Allyson Caffell (WA), Nicole Grasso (NSW), Chedy Kalach (NSW), Ryan Magart (VIC), Luke Yong (VIC), Jordan Dyce (TAS), Gladys Mak (WA), April Petrusma (NSW), Rayleen Tamblyn (NSW) and Emma Dyce (TAS).
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