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About the Foundation
The mobile clinic access the very remote areas Everyone get's their blood pressure taken
The examination room in the mobile clinic is well equipped What happens to the used eyeglasses that the are collected and given to EyeCare WeCare Foundation? Everyone should have the opportunity to join us on a medical vision mission to the Philippines some day. They need to receive the hugs and witness the uncontrolled tears of joy that come when people, especially the young kids have their vision restored. In many cases it is the first time in their lives that they have seen clearly. I cannot describe it – it is a life changing experience for many. What a miracle. Of course that didn’t just happen by chance. Each pair of donated eyeglasses has traveled many miles and have undergone many phases in order be able to carry out their purpose, to change lives. When they arrive at the EyeCare WeCare Foundation headquarters, they are first sorted , many are beyond repair are separated out Many frames can be repaired some lenses have to put back into their frames; The eyeglasses are then cleaned by putting them through a dishwasher cycle; then a lensometer is used to measure the powers of the eyeglasses and the prescription is written on a plastic zip bag and placed in the bag. They are then placed in large boxes and transported to Tacoma to LBC, an ocean transport company ,ship them to the Philippines. Each box costs $65 to ship. We ship around 30 boxes for each medical missions. That is 60 boxes per year. They will be delivered 6 weeks later at the EyeCare WeCare Foundation branch office in Negros Occidental, Philippines. We have a volunteer optician who sorts out the bagged glasses with the prescriptions written on them, and places them into one of three boxes. They are Men’s glasses, Women’s glasses or children’s glasses. Each of those boxes are further sorted as to farsighted or nearsighted; then sorted even further to bifocals or single vision. You end up with 10 categories Women Single Vision Farsighted Men Single Vision Farsighted Women Single Vision Nearsighted Men Single Vision Nearsighted Women Bifocal Farsightedness Men Bifocal Farsighted Women Bifocal Nearsighted Men Bifocal Nearsighted Children Nearsighted Children Farsighted Each of these 10 categories are sorted down into powers of the right eye starting at zero power placed in ascending order. We color code each category container so when volunteers remove the containers off the mobile clinic, they simply stack the green, for example, which is Men Single Vision Farsighted, into one stack and the Red which would be the Men Bifocal Farsighted eyeglasses. Each of the containers (which are colored and labeled as to Sex and Type will also have a power range written on them, for example 0 - +1.00 or +1.00 to +2.00. Each color category can be placed into power order very easily by any volunteer. Now you have the 10 categories with their containers each with a different color and arranged in ascending powers. When the patient arrives at the dispensing area and hands the prescription to the volunteer dispenser, the dispenser looks at it to see what type and power and goes right to the box, finds one or two pair that are very close to their prescription (we carry around 50,000 pair with us) and returns to the patient to let them look through the eyeglasses and see which pair works the best or in many cases, the ones they look the best in . They usually leave the area very happy and is awaiting the benefit of restored vision. NOW COME THE TEARS AND HUGS SHOUTS OF JOY. As you can see, it is quite a process. Without the eyeglasses there are no tears and hugs, no changed lives. poor people. When one looks at each pair of eyeglasses is received we see a very emotional recipient.
The containers that in which the eyeglasses are placed to find the prescriptions quickly
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