"Off Ship...Eyes..."

The ship ministry is so large that we are not able to contain it on the ship alone.  We have three off-ship sites that support the ship: Eye Screening Sites, the Dental Clinic, and the Hope Centre.  Over the next few blogs, I would like to introduce you to each one of the off-ship sites. 

The first one is the Eye Screening Site.The purpose of the Eye Team is to perform specialized surgeries to correct blindness due to pterygium and cataracts.  They also want to increase awareness about basic eye health issues and reduce the impact of harmful UV radiation and the related incidence of eye disease by distributing pairs of UV-blocking sunglasses and reading glasses.

Each week the Eye team goes to different places throughout Lome to screen for potential eye patients.

For the most part, people wait in line for the prescreening nurse to check to see if they are eligible to pass through to the next screening.

People waiting to pass through the gates.

Kelli checking each persons eyes for potential patients, especially looking for those who have cataracts,pterygium, and other eye problems.

Outside the screening site, this one is a local church.

Checking their vision with the eye charts.

The doctor looking and checking their eyes.

Once suitable candidates are found, they are given a ticket with an appointment date to come to the ship for another screening before they are scheduled for surgery.