We showed up at our first outreach about an hour away by the coast and there were around 300 people there! The volunteers and I got introduced to the crowd and it was awesome to see how happy they were we came to help. After that I worked at the visual acuity station for the day. Our job is to test peoples vision using an E chart so its universally understandable and then record their measurement out of six meters. It was amazing to be able to work with the people and see how our help is going to make huge difference in their lives.
It was shocking to see how many people could not see or were completely blind though. Most of the elderly had cataracts and even some children were blind or could only see you a couple meters away, it was sad. After they test at our station we send them to the doctor where he gives them more exams and prescribes them medication. Most of the children and people have okay vision but have allergic or inflammation in the eye due to the dirt and pollution. So all they need is eye drops and because of money I have raised and other volunteers we are able to sell them to them at very low costs. We can even sell them glasses at 3 cedis which is less than a dollar! More…