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Australian optometrist Luke Arkapaw volunteered with Sightsavers’ partner the Belize Council for the Visually Impaired in summer 2009, and sent us a personal account of what it is like working with them…

In July 2009 I spent a week in Belize as a volunteer with the Blind Council for the Visually Impaired (BCVI), a not-for-profit organisation that has been providing affordable eye care to poor people in Belize for more than twenty years.

Eye exams with BCVI are free of charge and the spectacles they supply are heavily discounted. An ophthalmologist works every second month in the Belize City clinic. The organisation also provides services for all the children and adults who are blind or visually impaired in the country. The week I was there they were running their annual week long camp for visually impaired children.

I was there to mentor Freddy (pictured below), a BCVI optometrist who had recently graduated from a school in Guatemala. BCVI employ all four currently practicing optometrists in Belize. I was also accompanied by Jerson during the time I was in Belize, an American student who is keen to practice optometry in developing areas once he has graduated.

The weekend prior to the week of work, Jerson and I spent a day in Caye Caulker, a nearby island that hosts the second most impressive coral reef in the world. While snorkling we were fortunate enough to see a manatee, an endangered species also known as a ‘seacow’, and sting rays, which we were able to touch and hold. We spent the other day wandering around Belize City, which looks every bit as impoverished as it is.

Freddy is the optometrist who is responsible for the BCVI outreach clinics. As such, each day of the week we travelled to a different area of the country to examine eyes in a regional medical centre. There were not as many patients as I expected; I was informed that this was because it was the rainy season and Belizeans don’t venture out in the rain! Having a manageable patient load was really ideal as it allowed me to observe the local optometrist in action and to take advantage of the ‘teaching moments’ that presented themselves. I was able to help Freddy perfect his techniques for producing prescriptions, and improve his ability to diagnose pathology. It was very satisfying to see the advice that I was dispensing being put into practice immediately, saving the optometrist time and securing better results for the patients.

The most memorable patient for me was the man who turned up with a small piece of metal lodged in the front of his eye. I told him that if he was able to get a needle from the local hospital that I would attempt to removed the metal and the rust ring around it. He returned about an hour later and I carefully removed the offending irritant.

The most unforgettable lunch break was the one in which I was ‘strongly encouraged’ to eat gibnut, which is the pride of the local cuisine; a gibnut is a large rodent. I was assured that it was a delicacy that was served to the Queen of England last time she was in the country. It seems that being treated like royalty in Belize is a little different to being treated like royalty elsewhere! I would not have realised that it wasn’t beef if I hadn’t been informed otherwise.

During the week that I was with BCVI I was very impressed with the work they are doing. Being the only organisation employing optometrists and providing low vision services in the country makes them one of the most important institutions in Belize. Having done all the hard work of setting up the infrastructure to deliver quality eye service at affordable rates, I sincerely hope that they will be able to continue to expand the crucial services they make available to the good people of Belize.

Luke also spent some time with our partners in Guyana. Click here to find out about his experience there.