Two Olds optometric assistants can't wait to go back to the Philippines to help provide eye care for poor residents there.
Miranda Taylor and Amanda Hawman of the Olds Eyecare Clinic visited the Philippines last November under the auspices of the Canadian Vision Care charity and Special Philippine Eye Care Solutions Foundation Inc.(SPECS).
They helped optometrists provide eye care for children at the Eye Train, a train car outfitted like a clinic. They also helped provide eye care for kids at Smokey Mountain, a pile of garbage that people actually live on.
Taylor and Hawman dealt with children in three schools: a special needs school, a facility for the deaf and one for children in elementary grades through middle school.
They went there with two eye doctors: Dr. Tanya Sitter who works at the Olds Eyecare Clinic and at Sundre Vision Care, and Dr. Amy Forrest who works at clinics in Airdrie and Innisfail.
Taylor and Hawman felt good about helping the kids they met but they were appalled by the poverty they saw there.
“There was garbage everywhere,” Taylor said, adding they saw residents living out of cardboard boxes.
“They piece together what they can,” Hawman said.
She said the visit gave them both a new appreciation for how they live in North America, but also how excessive the Canadian lifestyle is compared to that of others in poorer countries.
Hawman was amazed at the attitude of the children they dealt with.
“They're always so happy and resilient, and their parents, so grateful for us. That was a big part of it,” she said.
Taylor agreed.
“Even the drops that we put in their eyes, they can be painful; they sting. But they're the toughest little kids I've ever seen. A lot of them wouldn't cry. They'd all hold each other's hands and get the drops put in. It was really sweet,” she said.
Taylor and Hawman were amazed at conditions at Smokey Mountain.
“That school was actually made out of seacans,” Taylor said. “They made a triangle out of seacans and it was probably eight levels high.”
She and Hawman noted moms would pull the tabs off pop cans and make jewelry out of them to be sold. Handbags would be made out of pop cans and magazines as well.
“That's their job; that's their income,” she said.
“At the school for the deaf, many of those children had very high prescriptions which would render them almost blind,” Hawman said, noting they were obtaining glasses that would enable them to “see clearly for the first time.”
Hawman said the school for the deaf forced them to adapt.
“The school for the deaf was a bit of a challenge because, while the doctors knew a little bit of sign language, Miranda and I really didn't know any,” she said.
“So we had to get creative,” Taylor said, adding they drew pictures to help the kids understand what was being asked of them.
Hawman and Taylor also saw a huge difference in the equipment that was utilized.
“Here, we have stationary machines that are very accurate and easy to use. There, it's hand-held machines and putting dilating drops in kids' eyes,” Taylor said.
Hawman and Taylor paid for the trip themselves, with some help from the eyecare clinic.
"They're always so happy and resilient, and their parents, so grateful for us."AMANDA HAWMANOPTOMETRIC ASSISTANT
