Stories from Labassa Trip 2017

​Sairusi Batisaaesare came along to our vision assessment day at Seaqaqa, 40 minutes drive west of
Lambasa. He had been waiting since early morning. With his bible in hand he wanted reading
glasses to help him read some highlighted sections in his bible. Sairusi told us he was a minister for
the Seventh Day Adventist church and was no longer able to read from the bible to his congregation.
After determining Sairusi’s prescription we were able to fit him with reading glasses. He was excited
and relieved to be able to confidently go back to work this week and provide a sermon to his
congregation.

​We met Akosita at Tawake, a village two and a half hours drive east of Lambasa.   She has four children and four great grandchildren.  Akosita had arrived by boat from Wainigadru.  She was born very short sighted and an accident when she was at school had left her with no vision in her right eye.  Her poor vision meant that after this accident she had to leave school.   Akosita had visited many eye teams in the past and been to Suva looking for help, but no one had been able to provide her with the strength of glasses that she needed.  We were able to give Akosita glasses that gave her clear vision for near work.  This will give her more independence and greater confidence to spend time with her grandchildren.  Akosita is 61 years old and the trip to Tawake for glasses meant a full day out as the boat she travelled in could only land and take off during high tide.  We had boat loads of people arrive for vision testing in Tawake, they came in the morning, waited for us to arrive, we tested eyes and gave out glasses, they then stayed for lunch and left on the afternoon tide.  One boat had a four hour ride home.  Providing outreach clinics with glasses to these remote villages is the only way for many people to receive glasses and the vision most of us take for granted.  The cost of travel alone for many village people is prohibitive.