Story by Elmien Verster and Photos by Patrick Black
SEEING THROUGH THE EYES OF AN OPTOMETRIST
Elmien Verster is an optometrist who volunteers her expertise to uplift rural communities. In collaboration with her, we were able to help 120 eyecare patients in one of our recent projects. And we are excited to share her experience!
helicopter to the different areas really made such a difference in the number of people we could see. I averaged an amount of +-30 people per day for four days (120 people). “The need for primary eyecare is so big in South Africa,” Elmien continued. “There are very few public hospitals in a country that prescribes glasses to the public and if they do, the waiting list and backlog is so big the people wait very long to be helped with the necessary glasses. During the trip, I visited four clinics and every single day there wasn’t enough time to help the growing queue that was waiting to be seen by the optometrist. Most of the people waiting in the queue had a mature cataract in one or both eyes that eventually leads to blindness if not
“This was my first trip with Mercy Air and Flying for life,” Elmien said. “I went as the registered optometrist. I did the visual screenings, identifying various health conditions related to the eyes and treating where possible. I also got a sponsor for readymade reading glasses and could help many people with distance and near vision with those glasses. We went to various remote clinics in the Limpopo province. The Vhembe District in Limpopo is so vast, and the different villages are quite far from each other. Being able to fly with a 18
