SVOSH-NECO Dominican Republic April 2017 On March 31-April 7, twenty-four third year students and four OD’s from the New England College of Optometry embarked on our annual VOSH clinic trip to the Dominican Republic. We arrived at the Santo Domingo airport early in the morning (after a 3-hour long delay on our red eye flight), were greeted by our host Maria from the Batey Relief Alliance (BRA), and taken to our hotel in Boca Chica. Once settled into our hotel, we were driven another hour outside of Boca Chica to the Gildan Factory where we would be working. We spent the rest of the day setting up our clinic, unloading crates of glasses, putting up visual acuity charts, and setting up BIO’s in the dark room that Gildan had built for us. After a long first day, we headed back to our hotel to finally get some rest!
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We got up the next morning, loaded back onto the bus, and drove to Gildan. We were greeted by the director of Gildan and some officials from the BRA, had our pictures taken, and then headed inside to get to work. Each student was assigned a station for each day of clinic (refraction, entrance testing, dilation, or dispensary). Our four days of clinic went amazingly smooth, and this was largely in part due to the exceptional organization of Maria, the BRA, and Gildan. They had preemptively gone and handed out tickets to people living in the Batey so instead of having people pushing and shoving to get an eye exam, people knew which day to come. This allowed us to focus on our eye exams instead of crowd control.
This trip was an amazing experience in so many ways. The sheer volume of patients that we were able to see allowed us as optometry students to improve our skills in a short period of time, as well as be exposed to diseases that we would have a low chance of seeing in the US. Being able to practice using our Spanish also drastically helped many of us improve with our Spanish-speaking patients when we returned to Boston. For many of us, it was our first time to the Dominican, so on our last day, we had a chance to explore Boca Chica or relax on the beach after a busy four days of clinic. The culture, food, and kindness of the people there was something that we will all remember for a long time.
I’m sure if you ask any of the students who went on the trip, each person would tell you about a different moment that stood out to them, but I think we can all agree that this was a trip we will never forget. We were able to see over 800 patients, and we dispensed hundreds of pairs of glasses, readers, and sunglasses. We were also able to provide eye drops for people who needed them.
Gildan was nothing short of amazing— not only providing us with comfortable working conditions but also with food and water to sustain us throughout the day. We couldn’t have done this without all of their help and we are so grateful for their generosity and kindness. We also received many generous donations from various businesses and individual donors, and tons of glasses donations from the Boston Lions Clubs. A huge thank you also goes out to Dr. Jeff Ho, Dr. Nicole Theiss, and Dr. Jameel Kanji who volunteered their time out of their busy schedules to come on the trip. And of course, this trip would not have been possible without the incredible longstanding dedication of Dr. Bina Patel.
This trip was an amazing experience in so many ways. The sheer volume of patients that we were able to see allowed us as optometry students to improve our skills in a short period of time, as well as be exposed to diseases that we would have a low chance of seeing in the US. Being able to practice using our Spanish also drastically helped many of us improve with our Spanish-speaking patients when we returned to Boston. For many of us, it was our first time to the Dominican, so on our last day, we had a chance to explore Boca Chica or relax on the beach after a busy four days of clinic. The culture, food, and kindness of the people there was something that we will all remember for a long time.
I’m sure if you ask any of the students who went on the trip, each person would tell you about a different moment that stood out to them, but I think we can all agree that this was a trip we will never forget. We were able to see over 800 patients, and we dispensed hundreds of pairs of glasses, readers, and sunglasses. We were also able to provide eye drops for people who needed them.
Gildan was nothing short of amazing— not only providing us with comfortable working conditions but also with food and water to sustain us throughout the day. We couldn’t have done this without all of their help and we are so grateful for their generosity and kindness. We also received many generous donations from various businesses and individual donors, and tons of glasses donations from the Boston Lions Clubs. A huge thank you also goes out to Dr. Jeff Ho, Dr. Nicole Theiss, and Dr. Jameel Kanji who volunteered their time out of their busy schedules to come on the trip. And of course, this trip would not have been possible without the incredible longstanding dedication of Dr. Bina Patel.