About four mornings each week, we load up the Unite For Sight van with eyeglasses of assorted strengths, two optometrists, a few volunteers, and one ophthalmologist with hand-held ophthalmoscope, and head out into the slums of Chennai. Once there, we take about 15 minutes to set up camp-- a table for registration, a visual acuity station with eye charts, two optometrist stations, an ophthalmologist station and an eyeglass distribution station. As a volunteer, I can do one of three things: help with registration, test visual acuity, or hand out eyeglasses. If there are enough volunteers (though there usually aren't), I can sit with the ophthalmologist and learn to identify some of the more common eye diseases-- I've seen cataracts, pterygium, and a few corneal opacities.
Yesterday I was handing out eyeglasses, which is probably the most immediately gratifying job. Patients who can barely see queue up at the station with their prescription cards from the optometrist; when I hand them their new eyeglasses and ask "Thereeyutha? Can you see?" slow smiles spread across their faces, and they respond, "Theree! I see!" Sharing those smiles is priceless. My friend Ali managed to capture a few on camera:
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