Photos: Supplied.
FROM CLACHER AND HOOK OPTOMETRISTS, WYNNUM
Sarah Warlow, a local optometrist who works at Clacher and Hook Optometrists on Bay Terrace, Wynnum, recently returned from a two-week eye outreach in Northern Uganda.
Sarah saw over 250 people for assessment of glasses and eye disease in a region called Kitgum, where many do not have access to eye care. An inability to obtain corrective glasses and cataracts are the leading causes of blindness and low vision in Uganda.
Sarah held outreaches in remote villages with a team of Ugandan health professionals from Yotkom Hospital. This not-for-profit hospital was founded eight years ago by Sarah’s father, Dr Andrew Wright, and is run by Yotkom Uganda, an organisation that provides quality and accessible health care to the people of Uganda. Dr Wright also worked for many years as a general practitioner at Wynnum’s Baywest Medical Centre prior to embarking on his amazing work in Africa.
The father and daughter team visited schools in the region, and Sarah was able to provide vision screening, eye health assessments, and glasses to many students who had never had their eyes tested.
Thanks to the generosity of patients from Clacher and Hook Optometrists who brought in their pre-loved glasses, and donated lenses from CR Labs, an Australian lens manufacturing company, they were able to give out over 120 pairs of glasses to people in need. The smiles on their faces and the gratitude expressed by the community recipients were extraordinary.
As part of her eye outreach clinics, Sarah compiled a list of patients with visual impairment due to cataracts. Yotkom Uganda is seeking to raise funds for these operations, which cost just $100 per patient for the sight-restoring surgery performed by an ophthalmologist in the neighbouring city of Gulu. Clacher and Hook Optometrists are so proud of Sarah and her incredible efforts in effecting positive change in the lives of the Ugandan people, and how she has used her clinical expertise and unwavering passion to make this happen.
Clacher and Hook Optometrists have generously donated $400 to Yotkom, which will be used to provide cataract surgeries for those identified through Sarah’s outreach clinics.
If you would like to find out more about Yotkom Uganda you can visit their website, www.yotkom.com where you will find links to their social media as well as ways you can help support the cause. Otherwise, come in and visit Sarah and the team in-store at Clacher and Hook Optometrists to find out more about this amazing and worthwhile project.
