SEPTEMBER SVOSH CHAPTER OF THE MONTH:
THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF OPTOMETRY
Another SVOSH chapter undertook the incredible task of organizing a trip to Africa on its own. Typically SVOSH-OSU travels to Central or South America for its annual trip. Traveling to Africa this year was a huge undertaking . But they report the experience was well worth the challenge. The 14 students and 3 doctors who attended this year’s trip are all so thankful to have met our Ghanaian patients!
Read on for the report submitted by OSU’s Carolyn Chakuroff. And look for their photos in the SVOSH Photo contest below.
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This year, Ohio State’s SVOSH organization traveled to 8 rural communities within the Eastern Region of Ghana. We provided full, dilated eye examinations to 691 patients over 4 days of clinic. Our partner, the St. Theresa Eye Clinic did an incredible job recruiting patients from these villages to our clinics and it was a true pleasure meeting the village chiefs and assembly coordinators who often got the first eye exam of the day as an example for their people.In addition, we worked closely with Dr. Emmanuel Owusu – a Ghanaian native who recently graduated with his Ph.D. from Ohio State. It was a special priveledge to work beside him providing eye care and education in his home country.
We referred 25 patients for cataract removal. Dr. Tom Mauger from the OSU Ophthalmology department and his resident completed 41 cataract procedures, including our referrals, the week after we left. Thanks to the support of our donors and VOSH International, we were able to leave behind a collection of sunglasses, hats, readers, frames, and lens blanks for the clinic to use with these patients after we are gone