 |
Then when a group of optometrists request frames and lenses for a project the glasses are separated with so many of each frame style in large metal containers and shipped to the nearest large city. This shipment is usually done three months in advance if it is going to Africa, Asia, South America. Shipments going to Mexico or Central America are usually trucked a month ahead of the screening. The doctors need to take most of their own equipment and secure their own transportation to the central gathering site for the screening. This central gathering site may be in a town several miles from the actual screening site depending on the sanitary condition and presently depending on the threat of terrorism. (With the abduction of the leading individual for CARE in Iraq the safety of the workers has become of extreme importance.) Once everything is in place the doctors and extreme ancillary personnel come in with the final equipment. People from the villages will start lining up for five to six hours before the clinics are to open. Many of the villagers have never seen a doctor before. The people are examined and give a prescription for glasses. Then the villagers go to the dispensing area, where the nearest prescription is dispensed to them. This one pair of lenses might be the only set of glasses this villager will have all their life. All of the unused glasses are then returned to the United States and are made available for the next screening somewhere in the world. A small donation of US $20.00 to LCIF makes a big difference. For about the same cost of going to the movies, LCIF can provide sight-restoring cataract surgery in Africa and South Asia.
You can also mail used hearing aids to: Gooding School for the deaf and BlindHere the electronic components of the hearing aids are removed, inspected, and repaired. The child is then tested and a mold of the ear is made. The hearing aid which is to be used is then mounted in a case and given to the child as a loaner. Most of the hearing aids are the type which are mounted in a molding behind the ear. Very few of the inner ear hearing aids are used at the Gooding school.
|