Improving a person’s vision through giving them the right spectacles, or restoring their sight through a cataract operation fundamentally changes their lives. Dr Davies Optometrists in Makhanda has been facilitating access to eye care for people who can’t afford it for more than a decade. Rotary Kenton-on-Sea has been facilitating access to this groundbreaking programme for almost as long.
For more than a decade, the owner of Dr Davies Optometrists Trevor Davies has provided screening, spectacles and access to cataract operations for people who can’t afford private health care and who must wait years to reach the top of the waiting list for specialised treatment in our under-pressure public health care system.
As far back as 2015, the Rotary Club of Kenton-on-Sea, during their annual Rotary Health Days, identified the need for eye care intervention in local communities.
Rotary reached out to Dr Davies Optometrists, who stepped in to help. Since then, apart from a two-year gap during Covid, Rotary Kenton have been facilitating access for local residents to the eye clinics organised by Dr Davies Optometrists.
The number of residents from the Kenton area attending each of the Rotary Kenton-facilitated eye screenings has grown, resulting in long waiting lists. What that shows is how important this project is to the lives of our residents who rely entirely on already burdened state health care.
The driving force behind this project is Rotarian Sandy Smith, who manages and coordinates between optometrists, transport, patients and clinics.
“Rotary Kenton now aims to screen 200 patients per year and provide spectacles to those who need them,” Smith told Talk of the Town. “This screening will usually produce about 40 patients needing cataract operations or other interventions, who will be transported to Makhanda for these treatments and join the programme of Dr Davies Optometrists.”
All transport for these visits is provided by Rotary Kenton on Sea.
The follow up checks for cataract patients are done by Graham Crich Optometrists in Kenton on Sea.
Adding to the pressure on this very important intervention is the fact that the sponsor who previously supplied lenses free of charge is no longer able to do so.
How you can help
Rotary would like to reach out to its sponsors and supporters for their assistance in continuing with this life-changing programme.
What we need
It costs around R80 000 to get 200 patients screened by Trevor Davies and his colleagues and seen to every year. Some of that amount goes to screening and glasses, and some of it goes to transport for those needing further specialist intervention.
Costs include follow up examinations in Makhanda for all patients needing this. All patients requiring further specialist care will be slotted into the Makhanda clinic and seen by an ophthalmologist.
Cataract surgery is provided through the Makhanda based Cataract Programme and costs not met by the state are met by Dr. Davies Optometrists.
Rotary covers all transport costs.
- Patients requiring specialist care, 1 trip to Grahamstown to be examined.
- Cataract patients require an extra pre-op assessment, surgery and 1 day post op check up, totalling 4 trips.
It is a life changing opportunity for the disadvantaged community, both for those with the simple need of the correct spectacles and those requiring cataract operations or advanced ophthalmic care.
“Every Rotarian involved has also experienced a life changing moment, as blind and severely incapacitated patients suddenly become part of the world around themselves, once more,” said Smith. “Several younger patients have been able to return to work or indeed be promoted at work, as they can accomplish so much more with the correct eye care or spectacles.”
Read more about this and other Rotary projects at rotarykenton.co.za
- This article was first published in Talk of the Town, August 15, 2024. The newspaper serving the communities of Ndlambe and the Sunshine Coast, with a weekly wrap of Makhanda news, is available at stores from early on Thursdays.