Eye Camps
Twenty-two Australians, all wearing navy blue shirts, with a big yellow badge shaped like their country, walked out of the arrival hall this week at Ulaanbaatar airport. They were here to do good, and boy, have they done just that! Each day of the week they have left the comforts of their downtown hotel in Ulaanbaatar and headed off to some schools in the sprawling poor ger districts of the city for the day. They have tested upwards of 450 children's eyes per day, many of them needing eye glasses.

This "eye camp" is a joint ADRA and Rotary venture that has been done in Nepal for many years, but since security is no longer a given there, they have come to Mongolia for their annual outreach. We dropped in at a school yesterday to see the process. Excited school children jostled each other in the passage as each awaited their turn to receive a card and stand to face the eye chart on the wall. Some darling ladies helped by holding their one eye closed while they indicated the direction each letter was facing. With their "score" on the card they sat in a queue waiting to see the optometrist who fitted them with a instrument allowing various lenses to be tried till the correct strength was found. Next, with their precious card, they headed to the queue for fitting of frames. Within 4 days the team had run out of glasses with minus readings. Fortunately, we had received from ADRA Canada some boxes of used eye glasses. These were brought to the rescue as there were many more children needing glasses than anticipated.

One little girl from a poor family had been fitted with glasses several years ago, but three years before had broken them. Her parents could not afford to replace them, so all this time she had hardly been able to see. My camera captured the smiles on a few faces as they lit up when suddenly they were able to see clearly for the first time. Very self conscious, they walked passed their friends in the school hall wearing their new glasses, going out more focused to face a much brighter world.

In one district where the team was testing eyes at a school, someone in the community had a brilliant idea. They decided that if the glasses were free, then this should also be made available to the whole community. They quickly duplicated a notice for free eye-glasses at the school and walked around and placed it at the entrance of each apartment. Crowds of hopeful grannies and grandpas rushed down to the school. An all-time record for glasses issued in a single day was set by over 570 being tested that day.

Your eyes are windows into your body. If you open your eyes wide in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar. If you pull the blinds on your windows, what a dark life you will have! Matthew 6:22 (The Message)

Llewellyn Juby - July, 2005

Follow-up
We had waited for 5 months for them to arrive, but this week a precious box containing 52 pairs of spectacles arrived by post from Australia. A group of Australian optometrists had volunteered their time and had come out to Mongolia in July, 2005, visiting 22 schools in a two-week period, and testing the eyes of over 4,000 children and adults. Although they brought with suitcases of glasses, they were not able to have the correct eye glasses for all. I visited a school today to give 16 students their glasses. Excitement was evident in the happy faces. They all seemed to echo the sentiments of someone who said, "We were sure that the Australians living so far away would not remember their promise. We are so happy." I took some photos to capture the immense joy at being able to see properly again. I had that wonderful feeling that comes with helping someone.

January 2006