Third World Eyecare Society Bringing sight to the blind

By Laureen McMahon

The shocked look on the faces of children who are seeing clearly for the first time in their young lives keeps Vancouver optometrist Marina Roma-March and her husband Derrick returning each year to poor countries where eye care is unavailable to most people.

"Imagine a child's reaction when their world comes suddenly into focus. Imagine a parent looking on and realizing that their nearly blind son or daughter can now see. Imagine a mother seeing her child's face for the first time!

"There are many stories and many tears shed, that's for sure!" said Marina, in an interview at the Burnaby warehouse where thousands of pairs of donated glasses are collected, cleaned, examined, labelled, and stored until the next group of volunteers can take them to an underdeveloped part of the world.

The huge smile of delight on the face of a youngster who has been fitted with proper corrective lenses, said Marina, is all the proof she and Derrick need to know that the countless hours spent organizing eye clinics halfway around the world are well worth it.

For the past 15 years, since founding the non-profit Third World Eyecare Society, the couple have taken a dozen trips with volunteers to Vietnam, the Philippines, and parts of Africa. At last count, 55,000 pairs of donated glasses had found their way into remote villages where unchecked disease often causes irreversible blindness in young and old.

"Sometimes we can't help, but when glasses are what's needed, it's wonderful," said Marina.

Poor eyesight, she explained, is a main reason many children in poorer countries don't go to school.

"Without any education, how can they grow up to live an independent, productive life?" she asked.

Marina, who got her undergraduate degree at UBC, then earned a Doctorate of Optometry at Pacific University in Portland, Ore., traces her inspiration to visiting Mexican fishing villages where she was one of several students volunteering to conduct eye exams and fit donated glasses.

"It was the first time I realized that I could do something with my schooling to help those in need," she explained. When she and Derrick, a bio-chemist, married a couple of months after her graduation from university, the couple asked the Knights of Columbus, the Catholic Women's League, and other community organizations to gather discarded eyeglasses for donation to poor countries.

"They were very helpful, and are still helping us today along with many other service organizations such as the Girl Guides, but there is always a need for more glasses," said Marina.

"We would love it if parishes or schools would get involved. It's just a matter of putting out a box for old glasses and then having someone bring them to our office. We take it from there."

"Even 15 years ago we found ourselves busy right away. At first there were just the two of us, so Derrick gave up his research job to help me run my eye clinic and he also trained to make glasses," Marina said.

The couple, whose 6-year-old twins Evan and Emma attend Corpus Christi elementary, even delayed buying their own home until recently, as so much of their time and resources was being taken up with the Third World Eyecare Society, a registered charity.

"We've kind of lived our lives backwards compared to most people," said Marina with a smile. "It's more normal to establish yourself in a career, buy a house and car, and then add in charity work. With us, the eyeglasses always came first, and we are so grateful that it's worked out so well. We are catching up on everything."

Inspired by the memory of her grandmother Lorenza, who passed away before she could return to her native Philippines, the Marches chose to make their first trip to the Philippines in 1995 carrying boxes filled with 10,000 pairs of eyeglasses!

The Third World Eyecare Society, Marina said, has grown by leaps and bounds, and hundreds of ophthalmologists, optometrists, and opticians, as well as eye-care students, regularly volunteer in the clinics.

"All our volunteers pay for their own airfare and accommodation while in the foreign country," Marina explained. "Our trips are about 17 days long, with 10 clinic days beginning at 7:30 in the morning and finishing at 5:30 p.m. We see about 500 people a day. Before we go, we contact hosts and look for service organizations and church groups to recommend places to stay.

"We often work with missionary sisters such as the Sisters of Mercy in Peru, and, in Bolivia, with Father Andrew Cuschieri, who built a hospital, two schools, and three churches in Cochabamba province."

Father Cuschieri, who died in 2004, inspired an annual award given by the Toronto Catholic Schools Association to a student who has made a contribution to the community.

When Third World Eyecare volunteers fly from Vancouver, said Marina, they take the large boxes of glasses as checked baggage. It's become much more expensive because of the newer luggage weight restrictions," she noted.

Every second year she and Derrick organize the Eyeball Gala, a benefit dinner/dance and silent auction, with proceeds going to funding eye care clinics. The event is well supported by professionals in the eye-care and eye-wear industry, said Marina.

"People generously donate items to auction, so we usually raise between 40 and $60 thousand in a night," she explained. "Our volunteers also help by buying tables at the dinner. This keeps us going, and hopefully we will be able to establish a permanent eye-care clinic in Tanzania, which is our dream."

Every Monday evening volunteers troup into the warehouse near 16th Avenue and Cariboo Road in Burnaby, where space has been donated by the Lions Club. There they begin the process of sorting and cleaning the glasses, using an industrial dishwasher.

A professional machine called a lensometer accurately evaluates eyeglass prescriptions, and glasses are separated according to use for a nearsighted or a farsighted patient. They are sorted for size, bagged with the prescription marked on the label, and coded by colour to determine if they suit a man (blue), a woman (red), or a child (green).

"It's a meticulous process, said Marina, "and we are very particular about every pair of glasses. We have a very wide range of prescriptions to suit every need, so that when we get to the clinic thousands of miles away we can offer eyeglasses to everyone who needs them."

Some time ago Derrick approached a few prisons, and the North Fraser Pretrial Centre agreed to inmates being trained to learn to sort and grade eyeglasses, which has proved to be a marketable skill for the prisoners after they are released.

What is really needed is simple: more eyeglasses and more volunteers, Marina noted.

"Every parish can help out. If each organization in the Church gave us just one of their meeting nights a year, it would mean a great deal."

More information about the Third World Eyecare Society, donating eyeglasses, and volunteering is available at www.twecs.ca, 604-874-2733, and 604-879-6517.