World Vision Day 2017
Last Wednesday and Thursday were the two most hectic yet meaningful days for Pott Glasses this year. Since it was in conjunction with World Vision Day 2017 which was scheduled on this week, we had a lot of activities and work to be constructed.
On Wednesday, we went for a radio interview with AiFM to raise awareness about eye care in honor of World Vision Day 2017. Undeterred by which it meant to have to wake up early and getting stuck in the traffic, we viewed it as part and parcel of our job, a calling from our inner heart to share about eye care with the public. When we first received the invitation from the radio, we have this wavering thoughts whether we actually fit for such a huge honor. Nevertheless we perceived it as a challenge to voice out to the public on the fundamental issue regarding eye care which is usually neglected.
Many of us took our eyes for granted. We pay less attention to it but not as much as towards our health while the fact is both of them need equal amount of respect, care and focus. 8 consecutive hours on digital devices, bad reading habit of under low light condition and smoking are just few of the bad routines which are actually detrimental to the eyes. In the interview we deeply conversed on vision impairment such as glaucoma, macular degeneration and also vision disorder where extra care need to be attended in order to fully combat them. We also gave out advices on healthy food and lifestyle that should be practiced. It turned out the outcome of the interview went beyond than we expected. We received quite a number of phone calls after the interview, which literally meant that we had achieved our objective through the talk. The feeling is rather, very fulfilling.
The next day is the actual day of World Vision Day. We held a collaboration with Pejabat Daerah Dan Tanah Seremban to provide eye check to the school students and underprivileged community in Mantin, Negeri Sembilan. Named as “Program Jom Bantu Rakyat – Cermin Mata Percuma 2017”, it led by Puan Marhizah. We were informed about the named program a week before.
We had done a similar program in the past but what really strikes me this time round is how poor is the eye sight of the elderlies and how they are badly unaware about their deteriorating eyesight. There was this lady in particular that endlessly caught my attention. When she staggered in with her current glasses on, I could barely exchange an eye contact with her. Since it was because she wore a high power lens that resulted in high refraction which consequently overlay the eyes, making her eyes to appear much smaller. It turned out that her power is more than -20.00 or two thousand in layman term when I performed auto-ref scan. Just to give a reference of how high the power is compared to the norm, normal short sightedness ranges from -1.00 to -8.00. Clearly -20.00 is way out of the chart.
To make things worse, her visual acuity was way too below the benchmark. Visual acuity is one perimeter that I emphasized a lot in performing eye test. Basically it is a benchmark of measuring clarity, 1.0 being the perfect eye sight and anything below will make the sight blurry. Her vision with current glasses is only 0.1, that is 10% of the perfect eye sight. My job is to make sure that her vision is sharper than before. After a long session of subjective refraction, I only managed to push it to 0.3. Looking at her, I reflected a lot; without program like this she might hardly get her eye examined, not to mention getting a new pair of glasses since it would be extremely expensive to match her power. She is one of the reason why we are actively trying to reach out for the underprivileged in the suburb community. I couldn’t thank enough the parties for such a meaningful initiative. This lady will definitely get a better vision because of the program.
The eye test program started at 9am and ended at 5pm. Together with my team and the help from Pejabat Daerah dan Tanah Seremban and SMK Mantin, we were able to perform eye test for over 80 students. Out of that, 72 of them were confirmed needed glasses.
These two days really made me sat down and analyzed a lot about my job as an optician. The contentment to be able to help those with eyesight difficulties is like no other. We sometimes are too occupied with wanting to rapidly grow our business that we forget the true purpose of the business. I would like to thank all the parties for engaging us and allowing us to improve the living quality of others by improving their vision. And this has always been Pott Glasses’ mission.
Sincerely,
Eden Hong
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