Eyeglasses From Archbold Help Nicaraguans See Clearer
by Alicia Buckenmeyer Buckeye Staff Writer

Andrew Emch, left, examines a child's eyes while on a service trip in Nicaragua with fellow Ohio State University optometry students in September. Their five-day clinic provided eye care to approximately 1,500 patients.- courtesy photo

How many optometry offices examine 300 patients per day with a 20-person staff?

Not many.

Yet when OSU student Andrew Emch and members of Student Volunteers for Optometric Service to Humanity set up their clinic, they even had to turn people away.

Eye care is in high demand in Nicaragua.

Inevitable Connection

Andrew and members of SVOSH, a student-run group that educates the community on eye-care issues, didn't go to Nicaragua empty-handed.

Along with optometry equipment, they distributed eyeglasses collected by the Archbold Lions Club.

The Lions Club-SVOSH joint effort is inevitable. After all, Andrew, SVOSH president last year, is the son of John Emch, an Archbold optometrist and 30-year Lions Club member.

And collecting glasses for international distribution has been an Archbold Lions Club initiative for 50 years.

Andrew Emch enjoyed helping patients, like the girl on his left, who visited the eye-care clinic he and fellow Ohio State University optometry students set up for five days in Nicaragua. The OSU students distributed second-hand eyeglasses collected by Archbold Lions Club.- courtesy photo

Lions Club International has prioritized "prevention of preventable eyesight loss" for even longer, said Lynn Kinsman, president of the local club. It's been a principal club mission since a 1925 speech given by Helen Keller to Lions Club International.

Keller, who was deaf and blind, said, "I appeal to you, who have your sight, and your hearing, you who are strong and brave and kind. Will you not constitute yourselves Knights of the Blind in this crusade against darkness?"

The Archbold chapter has joined the crusade.

"Here locally, when people need eyeglasses and are unable to afford them, the Lions Club helps buy them for children and adults," said John.

The eyeglass collections that supply SVOSH inventory help remedy international need. Together, the groups bring clearer vision to many people in South American countries. John said in the region, it may cost as much as a year's wages for one pair of glasses.

Archbold Lions members clean, size, and measure lens prescriptions before John delivers the labeled glasses to SVOSH in Columbus. The student group distributes them on annual international service trips, which are just one of the organization's initiatives.

John has made a lot of trips to Columbus.

Archbold Lions have collected 33 bushels of donated eyeglasses for SVOSH in the past 15 years, he said.

Mutual Benefit

Almost entirely supported by Lions Club funding, the highlysought SVOSH clinic opened last September in Sébaco, Nicaragua, at 7:30 am.

"There is normally a line waiting at that point," said Andrew, who organized last year's trip.

The students and practitioners performed eye exams and donated the glasses. They also brought medicines and equipment to treat eye conditions re- quiring more than glasses.

Beyond treating eye conditions, group members focused on eye health education.

"Some of them have crazy eye conditions," said Andrew. "We can explain to them what's going on."

After resting up at the local hotel, the 17 SVOSH members and three physicians were on the job the next morning, screening about 1500 patients in five days.

They examined many patients. With free services, that's to be expected.

"You can actually have too many patients with this sort of thing," said Andrew. "Unfortunately, there were days where we had to turn people away. We tried to see as many as we possibly could."

Once, he said, local law enforcement officers had to be summoned to create order among those waiting in line.

"It was a great experience as it relates to culture, to cold showers," said Andrew.

Spanish wasn't necessary, but it helped. "I do speak a little Spanish," he said.

"When they see you speaking with them in their own language, they open up to you more. You're trying to learn about their culture."

Returning

"You come home to the States with this wholesome feeling like you've just done something really special," said Andrew, who went on two SVOSH service trips during two years of membership.

In the States, SVOSH members don't forget about the patients they screened; they ship glasses back to patients who need prescriptions unavailable among donated glasses.

"I can't say that everyone that needs them gets them," said Andrew. "But if we think there's a true benefit, you can bet that they'll get them."

The experience only cemented the career path Andrew will take after his graduation this June.

"Some of these people that have never been able to see, get glasses for the first time and cry. It's pretty powerful stuff," he said.

"You think differently about your profession after you experience something like this. In a great way."