Photo By Sgt. Caitlin Wilkins | Cheryl Lubach, a Lions Club volunteer, gives an Afghan evacuee an eye exam during an...... read more read more
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FORT McCOY, Wis. -- Task Force McCoy partnered with the Wisconsin Lions Club to fit Afghan evacuees here with prescription glasses from Nov. 11 through 14.
The Lions Club distributed glasses from their recycling program, provided more than 3,400 Afghan evacuees eye exams and fitted more than 600 of them with glasses.
“We’re doing eye exams for the Afghan guests, and giving the glasses out,” explained Steve Kraus, Wisconsin Lions Club mission coordinator. “These are all glasses that have been donated throughout time for whatever reason, and they’re all used glasses. We brought in 20,000 pairs of glasses.”
When the Wisconsin Lions Club heard about the thousands of Afghan evacuees who would be coming to Fort McCoy, they started planning the logistics needed to bring prescription glasses to the group.
“It was about three months ago I got a call from another Wisconsin Lion who asked about the possibility of doing this, and it seemed like an incredibly good idea to me,” explained Bill Taubman, president of the Wisconsin Lions Club Missions Program. “So I said ‘Let's go for it,’ and we’ve done just that.”
The Wisconsin Lions Club brought in volunteers, donated glasses, ophthalmologists, doctors who specialize in eye care, and phoropter machines, an instrument used in eye exams that test a patient's eyes with various lenses to see which lens looks blurry or clear, to ensure the Afghan evacuees received the proper prescription for their eyes.
“When they first get here they are put before a spot screener, and that screener electronically reads the prescription these people need,” said Taubman. “The initial thing with the screener is that if people have perfectly good eyes, then we send them off. If they don’t then we put them in front of the doctor and the phoropter, and that gives us a precise prescription for them.”
“From that point they go over to our volunteer pickers, they’re the ones who look at the prescription and actually pick out the glasses these people need. Then they go through the people we call fitters, who make the glasses stay on their head. They may have to do some bending and pulling, things like that. It’s a pretty simple process but it's a good one.”
For the Afghan evacuees, these glasses give them a new start as they go to English classes on Fort McCoy, and go through the resettlement process.
“We’re very thankful for all of these events, most of us when we left we either left our glasses, or they broke or were damaged,” explained an Afghan evacuee at the event. “I’m so glad for this event that our eyes got checked and those who needed it got their glasses. It’s good for them to be prepared for when they go out, whether they go to school or start working. We really appreciate the U.S. and all the personnel who made this event happen.”
The event also allows Afghan guests who didn’t know they needed glasses to be screened, and receive any eye care they need.
“This mission is just absolutely unbelievable, because a lot of our guests likely have never seen an eye doctor or had any kind of routine eye care, things we take for granted here in the United States,” explained Megan Sands, Department of Homeland Security logistics coordinator officer and liaison. “I think it’s absolutely a testament to the kindness of these people, they’re willing to leave their homes for four days. Come down here, bring all these things and donate their time, and they’re coming back in December. This is just really heartwarming, and I understand the guests are so grateful and have taken so well to this.”
The glasses recycling program has been a long time effort from the Wisconsin Lions Club, with over thirty years of conducting missions in various countries.
“The Wisconsin Lions have been doing this for about 30 years now,” said Taubman. “We’ve done it in several Central American countries, we go to Haiti, we’ve worked on a Native American reservation in Southwest South Dakota, Pine Ridge Native American Reservation.”
While prescription glasses are a small item that are often taken for granted in America, many of the Afghan evacuees thanked Fort McCoy personnel for bringing the optometry clinic on post for them.
“Yesterday someone said ‘Thank you so much, I lost my glasses when we were evacuating Kabul, and so did my wife. I haven’t been able to see properly for months, thank you so much. You improved the quality of our lives,’” said Sands
| Date Taken: | 11.12.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 11.13.2021 20:22 |
| Story ID: | 409275 |
| Location: | FORT MCCOY, WI, US |
| Web Views: | 496 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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