모든 카테고리 - VOSO 
 VOSO Trip to Fiji with Trustee , Reuben Gordon - June 2015 
 Flying over the sugar cane fields of Vanua Levi the team came into land at Labasa airport greeted with 26 ° C and a very warm welcome from the Labasa Lions Club . 
 Our team consisted of ophthalmologists Rebecca Stack , Genevieve Oliver , ophthalmic nurse Marie Taylor , optometrists Michael Brown , Ravi Dass , Marika Fiolitakis , Karen Moulton and myself as well as New Zealand Lions members Neil Pugh and Jennie Vowles . 
 From the airport we went straight to Labasa hospital where the optometry team delivered our supplies , set up testing stations and a glasses dispensary , while the surgical team went up to Labasa surgical suite to unpack supplies and get the lay of the land . 
 After work each day we were treated to dinner by Labasa lions as well as the hospital board and the Labasa Rotary club . During the week Michael also arranged interesting tours through a sugar cane and a plywood factory . 
 After a busy week we were looking forward to a weekend getaway to Savusavu . We spent the weekend in the markets , looking around the town , exploring the resorts , a snorkelling trip and topped off with an epic Super 15 final . A well needed weekend to recover before getting back into it . 
 The last week went way too quickly and I was staggered to hear that we ’ d performed 2370 eye screenings and over 2000 glasses were distributed . The surgical team performed 77 procedures including 73 cataract removals and a penetrating eye injury . 
 Labasa hospital has improved immensely from what I had been told to expect and this is testament to the hard work of the team there led by the local ophthalmologist Dr Uggi . 
 It was an amazing experience and the VOSO team were humbled by the hospitality of the Labasa Lions . We all worked hard throughout the trip , had interesting interdisciplinary chats and had a great time socially . I am keen to return in the future and would recommend it to all . 
 VOSO Volunteer , Jane , first trip to Samoa - March 2015 
 Two New Zealand optometrists recently returned from Samoa volunteering with Vision NZ . John Tarbutt ( Cambridge ) and Jane Ludemann ( Wellington ) spent a fortnight travelling around health clinics on Savaii and Upoli . They were gratefully assisted by the only Samoan optometrist , Auckland trained Erna Takazawa , and two excellent Fiji trained ophthalmic nurses on each island . It was at least John ’ s tenth trip to Samoa and Jane ’ s first . 
 ​ The first week concentrated on screening for cataract and pterygium surgery for the Pacific Eye Institute team arriving the following week . The second week concentrated on identifying diabetic retinopathy requiring treatment – of which there was a lot . With no access to Avastin , laser is the mainstay of treatment . All in all around 750 patients were seen , about that many glasses distributed ( 95 % of which were for hyperopia / presbyopia ) and at least 200 referrals were made . Overall it was a highly productive and satisfying trip . 
 ﻿ Volunteers a sight for sore eyes in Pacific 
 A lack of eye care in South Pacific nations like Tonga means a high number of locals suffer from preventable blindness and other vision disorders . VOSO is combating the plight by sending volunteer New Zealand eye specialists to restore sight to those in need . 
 Plenty of New Zealanders will have heard of the Fred Hollows Foundation . 
 However , few outside of the eye health industry will be familiar with Voso , a smaller organisation also striving to restore sight to those faced with barriers like distance and poverty . 
 Volunteer Ophthalmic Services Overseas - to give Voso its full name - is a joint project of New Zealand optometrists and ophthalmologists run as a charitable trust , which sends on average six teams a year to various South Pacific destinations . 
 Their mission : To help eradicate preventable blindness with surgery , the examination and treatment of people in need of eye care and supplying those who need them with glasses and sunglasses . 
 Over two weeks each team screens around 1500 patients and performs 60 to 80 cataract operations , typically on patients who are totally blind . 
 " It ' s true we have a very low profile , but we are quite well known in the profession , " says optometrist and Voso board member Ravi Dass , who was part of a five - man team who visited Tonga in October , accompanied by Waikato Times photographer Mark Taylor . 
 " We do have the same goals as the Fred Hollows Foundation . The Fred Hollows guys work to a fairly stringent business model to get what they have to do done . We try to work in collaboration with them , because we both have the same goals . It would be silly not to . 
 " We are a smaller , less well - advanced version of what they are . Their focus is on surgery . Ours is on surgery and glasses . When they head out to one of the Islands they take a shipping container full of advanced equipment with them . We basically just take ourselves . 
 " But on the other hand we do probably have less administrative costs . Any money we are donated or bequeathed goes straight into funding one of these trips . " 
 Ravi Dass was invited to join VOSO by chairman Richard Johnson , whom he previously worked with in Wellington . 
 " He suggested I go along on some of the volunteer trips . It was also useful that I was from Fiji - I got out at the time of the first coup [ in 1988 ] - and can speak Hindi . " 
 While there were just as many cases of eye disease in the Islands as there were in other countries , the difference between there and places like New Zealand was in the availability of follow - up services for those being treated , he said . 
 " No one really relates sunglasses to eye damage and conditions like cataracts . Prevention really is the key , " he said . 
 Dr Dass has now made eight trips to the Islands over the past 10 years . 
 " It ' s just a really nice thing to do for people . There ' s always something fun that happens or something really rewarding . On this last trip there were a couple of kids who we helped fix up for frames and lenses and that was really good to see what they got out of it . I guess I ' m naturally drawn to that side of things . "