The following article was featured in the Talk of the Town newspaper, highlighting the incredible impact of this life-changing project on our community.
Optometrists, Rotary team up for the gift of sight
Improving a person’s vision through giving them the right spectacles, or restoring their sight through a cataract operation fundamentally changes their lives. Dr Davies Optometrists in Makhanda has been facilitating access for to eye care for people who can’t afford it for more than a decade. Rotary Kenton-on-Sea has been facilitating access to this groundbreaking programme for almost as long.
For more than a decade, the owner of Dr Davies Optometrists Trevor Davies has provided screening, spectacles and access to cataract operations for people who can’t afford private health care and who might have to wait months or years to reach the top of the waiting list for treatment in our under-pressure public health care system.
As far back as 2015, the Rotary Club of Kenton-on-Sea, during their annual Rotary Health Days, identified the need for eye care intervention in local communities.
Rotary reached out to Dr Davies Optometrists, who stepped in to help. Since then, apart from a two-year gap during Covid, Rotary Kenton have been facilitating access for local residents to the eye clinics organised by Dr Davies Optmetrists.
During the past three years, community members attending the screening have received the spectacles they needed. Cataract operations and ophthalmic interventions were arranged through Dr Davies Optometrists’ programme. Until now, Louis Hattingh had been able to source readers, free of charge. Some patients have been referred to Livingstone Hospital in Gqeberha for further treatment when necessary.
The number of residents from the Kenton area attending each of the Rotary Kenton-facilitated eye screenings has grown, resulting in long waiting lists. What that shows is how important this project is to the lives of our local residents who rely entirely on already burdened state health care.
Adding to the pressure on this very important intervention is the fact that the sponsor who previously supplied lenses free of charge is no longer able to do so.
Plea to supporters
Rotary would like to reach out to its sponsors and supporters for your assistance in continuing with this life-changing programme.
What we need:
It costs around R80 000 to get 200 patients screened and seen to every 6 months.
What Dr Davies Optometrists have proposed to do for those 200 patients:
- Eye screening and provision of spectacles (non-tinted) to all requiring spectacles.
- Follow up examinations in Makhanda for all patients needing this. All patients requiring further specialist care will be slotted into the Makhanda clinic and seen by the state ophthalmologist.
- Cataract surgery will be provided through the Makhanda based Cataract Programme and costs not met by the state will be met by Dr Davies Optometrists. Rotary would need to cover all transport costs.
- Patients requiring specialist care, 1 trip to Grahamstown to be examined.
- Cataract patients require an extra pre-op assessment, surgery and 1 day post op check up, totaling 4 trips.
- 2 week and 6 week check ups.
*use the reference “Kenton Sees”
It is a life changing opportunity for the disadvantaged community, both for those with the simple need of the correct spectacles and those requiring cataract operations or advanced ophthalmic care.
Every Rotarian involved has also experienced a life changing moment, as blind and severely incapacitated patients suddenly become part of the world around themselves, once more.
Several younger patients have been able to return to work or indeed be promoted at work, as they can accomplish so much more with the correct eye care or spectacles.
The driving force behind this project is Rotarian Sandy Smith, who manages and coordinates between optometrists, transport, patients and clinics.
Witness the Joy:
Watch these heartwarming moments as patients experience the life-changing gift of restored vision, seeing the world clearly for the first time after treatment.
