Optical Express Optometrist Ed Baldwin has successfully completed his seventh Vision Aid Overseas project, a trip to Burkina Faso to distribute eyeglasses and screen patients for cataract surgery.
Baldwin went on his first project with Vision Aid in 2001, working with a team to provide eye tests and eyeglasses in Latvian prisons. Since then, his projects have included such locales as Ethiopia, Moldova, Bulgaria, and Ghana. He has also served as a team leader on more than one occasion. Baldwin’s most recent trip was unique, however, because of the cataract screening element.
“My most recent trip to Burkina Faso was a little different, since we were not only giving out glasses but also trying to find patients who needed cataract surgery,” he said. “We found about a hundred patients that needed intraocular lens treatment, and another team went out a few weeks after us with surgeons. It was great, because normally when you see patients with cataracts you can’t really do anything about it.”
Vision Aid Overseas (VAO) sends teams of volunteer Optometrists and dispensingopticians to developing nations to screen and outfit patients with appropriate spectacles. Nearing its 25th anniversary, VAO has provided 300,000 individuals with spectacles, and conducted 600,000 eye tests.
Baldwin commented, “Volunteering is the most rewarding thing you can do,” Baldwin said. “It’s giving people sight where they would otherwise be blind. In a lot of places there are no provisions for eye care, so if you haven’t got a pair of glasses you can’t work and feed your family.
“When you test eyes back home in the UK, the general public have a huge choice of opticians. In parts of Africa, people will walk from miles around to see you. You’re really making a difference to people’s lives in a short space of time with something as simple as a pair of spectacles.”
Baldwin has worked for Optical Express since 2001, and is currently based in Cardiff, providing both laser eye surgery and intraocular lens treatment consultations to prospective patients.
Via EPR Network
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