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Optometrist Gordon West on an outreach trip in Sri Lanka Photo: Rotary Club of Colombo, Sri Lanka
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By Jeff Megahan
Features Editor
Global Hand Charity is calling for volunteers for a trip to deliver optometric services in rural Sri Lanka in December.
The charity is an Australian organisation that has been conducting eye-care outreach programs over the past four years in remote locations in Laos and Sri Lanka.
It will co-ordinate the December project in conjunction with the optometry department of the University of Melbourne, Acacia Prison in WA which reconditions the recycled spectacles, and the Rotary Clubs of Sri Lanka.
In January this year, a team of four optometrists, four optometry students and four volunteers from the Global Hand Charity of Australia visited Sri Lanka.
Working in collaboration with local Rotary Clubs, they conducted eye camps in villages. The eye-screening events attracted an average of 550 people each day, many of whom were orphans and those hit by poverty and social problems.
By the end of its stay, the team had prescribed spectacles to 3,000 men, women and children.
All volunteers are expected to self-fund their airfares, accommodation, food and visa expenses. Global Hand Charity will provide the insurance and transportation to undertake the expedition.
For information contact Global Hand Charity medical co-ordinator Reggie Lau.
Sri Lanka Eye Care Project 2017 video
The January 2017 team of optometrists, co-ordinators and optometry students Photo: Rotary Club of Colombo, Sri Lanka