My Story Episode 008 || © Vision Club 2020
October Eighth. And coincidentally, it is the eighth episode of MyStory. Today is the World Sight Day, the international
day for eye health awareness celebrated on the second Thursday of October each
year. No need to say, there are many cadres and leaders active in the field of
eye health in order to reduce the global burden of blindness for the notable
years of their career. So, today in this special occasion we are going to
present you an inspiring story of one of the optometrists from Nepal who has
done a really commendable job of serving an exceptionally disadvantaged group
of refugees in Bangladesh in the last February. Happy WSD 2020; read the full
story of Ms. Prativa Devkota and see the Hope in Sight.
Ms. Devkota recounts,
It was my great privilege to receive an offer for me to volunteer at OneSight
clinic in the Rohingya community, Bangladesh. I was one of the two optometrists (Dr. Sudarshan Khanal being the other) going to represent from Better Vision Foundation Nepal on that particular clinic. The clinic was scheduled for the
second week of February 2020. My date of arrival in Bangladesh was 7th
February. By then, the news of the COVID-19 outbreak had grappled media around
the world as infections were being reported at an alarming rate. I had concerns
regarding the conduction of camp as the volunteers arriving for the clinic
belonged to several countries. Though there were no travel restrictions issued
by Bangladesh then, I faced no issue at immigration but had to undergo
temperature screening twice and few questionnaires at the airport. I was almost
overwhelmed by my own insecurities if I could make it through, but it was
relieving when I got out of the airfield where the Bangladesh land was
welcoming me with a gentle soothing breeze.
My heart swelled with gratitude for I had a national identity and a place to call my own country home.
By the midnight of February 7, all the team members had arrived
and I was super-excited to meet them at the BRAC Center Inn in Dhaka. A quick
introduction to BRAC would be helpful here. BRAC was founded by late Sir Fazle
Hasan Abed in 1972 with a vision to bring about positive socio-economic changes
in the life of poverty-stricken Bangladeshi citizens. The estimable leadership
of Sir Hasan took the organization to greater heights inciting changes in the
lives of millions of people. BRAC is one of the world’s largest development
focused non-profit NGOs. It currently operates in eleven countries in Asia,
Africa, and the Caribbean. Reading his inspiring words in the hallways of the
BRAC Center, I felt motivated and excited about the work I had come for. We
wrapped up the day with a quick introduction with all the team members.
We took an early flight from Dhaka on 8th February to Cox Bazar,
the site of the clinic. After nearly an hour we took off, I was captivated by
the ocean and the unending sights of brown sand beach. We were about to land at
Cox Bazar, the longest natural sea-beach in the world. A Bangladeshi
co-passenger, noticing my excitement, enlightened me that it stretched up to
125 kilometers. For someone like me coming from a landlocked country, it was a
sight to behold.
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| Enthused to be framed with the OneSight volunteers |
We were greeted by our team leaders at the Cox Bazar Airport,
finally meeting them in person after communicating with them virtually for a
couple of months. We reached a resort nearby the beach wherein our stay was
pre-fixed. A twin room was booked by the Onesight for me to be shared with a
volunteer from India. After a sumptuous lunch at 1 PM, the organizing team
instigated a formal introduction of all the volunteers at the hotel orientation
hall. The team leaders took a detailed briefing of the action plan accompanied
by the virtual tour of the camp. By the end of the briefing, I felt that the
team leaders had toiled so hard doing the groundwork to bring this camp to
fruition. They had screened 7000 patients from the refugees and host community
following the Basic Eye Screening Test (BEST), the screening protocol developed
by Dr. Srinivas Marmamulla, who was one of the clinical leaders of the camp.
Within a week, reaching people’s doorstep, they could screen a large volume of
patients. The introduction cum orientation lasted till it was evening and we
ended the day after a group dinner. I was thrilled for the upcoming field
days.
Clinic Day 1: Setting
Up The Gears
The team leaders had briefed that the area and community we were
about to serve was fraught with uncertainties. Obviously enough, all
participants but Indian nationals and team leaders required authorized visitor
cards issued by the International Rescue Committee (IRC), which managed the
campsite, to access the campsite. It was however bureaucratic red tape which
prolonged our wait to get the required access card. The relentless effort from
the BRAC team and one of the team leaders Mustafa, from Zimbabwe, came up with
a ploy in fast-tracking the process and all of us finally received our access
cards. It was already mid-day and only half of the team members were at camp.
So without further delay, we headed to the camp right after we received the
cards. Along the way, the view of the endlessly stretched coastline was
mesmerizing. Nearly after an hour of traveling, we reached the area designated
for Rohingya Refugees.
As soon as we passed a gate that signaled the direction to
Rohingya Refugee camp I felt heavyhearted as I was seeing people who were
forcibly displaced from their own home and nation just for belonging to a
religious minority. I witnessed something that I used to see only in the
movies, an infinitely long parallel fence of people running on all sides
of the camp. Encircling the camp were big white containers of relief materials labeled
with logos of different organizations. The campsite was densely packed with
thatched houses of woods and leaves with dull grey color housing 8,55,000
people. With the limited food supply and health services, and restriction to be
within the camp, the misery of life was beyond one’s imagination.
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| Dr. Sudarshan Khanal busy in the clinic |
Our team leaders heaved a sigh of great relief on seeing us there
as they were struggling to manage the patient flow in the clinic. I took my
place immediately on reaching the clinic area. I had two lady volunteers
assigned to assist me in the clinic. The first one wore a long purple burqa
with a beige shawl wrapped around her head. She introduced herself and further
added that she was from Myanmar. The pride with which she stated her
nationality was detached from the hard reality as her identity card openly identified
her as a forcibly displaced national from Myanmar. My heart swelled with
gratitude for I had a national identity and a place to call my own country home.
And there was another lady, probably in her teens, with a red shawl covering
all her face but eyes. First thing I noticed: she had alluring eyes. She
hesitated to tell me her name. I introduced myself and briefed them on the help
I needed. I took my first patient. He was a 65-year-old lanky man demanding
glasses to read the Quran. I prescribed him near glasses. No sooner had I put
glasses in the trial frame, he flaunted a huge smile, still vivid in my mind,
when he could read the smallest letter in the near vision chart. I felt happy
realizing that I could help strengthen the faith of someone who had nothing but
faith in god. We had limited hours of access into the camp but we achieved more
than our target for the day.
The view of the horizon painted orange by the setting sun and verdant paddy field on the way back to the hotel always rejuvenated the tired mind after long hours of work.
Day 2: Catching the
Spirit
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| It was so very satisfying a job! |
As every one of us had campsite access, all of us started the
clinic together at the designated hours. It was encouraging to see everyone
working hard. We had our team leaders approaching us time and again to make us
feel good and motivated. We were determined to serve the pre-screened patients
because this was a great opportunity which we seldom get. Due to the long hours
of standing, my legs would hurt but seeing people around me working with such
cheerful faces pushed me to complete checkups on more patients. I wonder if
those merry faces had a domino effect that all team members experienced the
same anguish but downplayed them to complete what we had all came for. We had
Vicki from Australia who was many years senior to me but she had the spirit and
energy of a playful child which was infectious. I could hear the
excitement of Welin at Dispensing table making patients wear their
first pair of glasses. She had a different level of alacrity and I guess it
increased with each passing day from the cumulative happiness of the patient. I
could communicate with a few people who could speak Hindi. I came to know
from volunteers that the community people loved to watch Bollywood movies and I
could communicate directly with patients. The highlight of the day was the last
patient I took for the day. After I completed prescribing the glasses, he
shared with me that he had lost his glasses while fleeing from his native land
in 2017 and was left visually impaired since then.
Day 3: Taking the
Control
It was the final day at Rohingya Camp. We were rightly set to
achieve the day’s target by the afternoon. It was around 1 PM and a few of our
team members went for a quick lunch break. Seeing a group of clinicians exiting
at once, the patients in the queue perceived that the clinic was being wrapped
up without their check-up and created chaos. Our team leaders sensing the
gravity of the matter immediately headed to appease them. However, their words
fell into deaf ears and the situation was nearing uncontrollable. Maud Zeller,
our team leader and IAPB Eye Health Hero 2019, did something so magical that
the noisy crowd instantly was on their toes. When the patients did not respond
to her earnest request she turned on music on her phone and started dancing to
engage the patient. Her quick action worked so tactfully to calm down the
patient. Soon, there was an unprecedented peace in the clinic room. This
was an amazing and an unconventional act of leadership I was fascinated to have
witnessed. The action was impromptu and it worked so very well.
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| Maud Zeller, the lady leader, Vision Care Heroine and IAPB Hero 2019 |
We finished our target number of patients at the refugee camp an
hour earlier and had to shift our clinic to the next station. Everyone did the
cleaning, packed the belongings nippily and passed it to load on the vehicle
like while playing a relay game. It was time to pay gratitude to our
volunteers. All of us were taking photographs with volunteers who worked so
hard to make the eye camp a success. The volunteer who hesitated to tell her
name came for the photograph. I was preparing my phone to take a selfie with
her and right at the moment, she lifted the veil and I saw her face for the
first time. She had a round face with a pleasant smile. I guess that was her
way of expressing gratitude. The feeling I had was inexplicable.
Day 4 and 5: Wrapping
Up
We set up our camp in the host community in Kutapulong village. We
had enough space for each examination in different rooms. The availability of sufficient
space made our work easier and the clinic was quickly set up. Afterwards, we
started enrolling patients for the checkup. Two days in the camp at the host
community went smoothly. We completed our target. The volunteers and the
patients at the host community thanked us and we returned to our hotel.
It was February 13th, Valentine’s Day eve. Our hotel had planned
big for Valentine’s Day and the hotel was adorned in a red theme. Onesight had
organized a dinner for us. I enjoyed trying all sorts of seafood. The last day
of the camp had a happy ending with a scrumptious dinner.
I could experience a striking difference in working in different
communities at the same time. It was challenging and also worth learning to
best utilize the available resources and provide the best services. The
language barrier, limited working hours, level of patients’ cooperation,
regular visits from high officials were challenges I observed as a clinician
while conducting clinics at the refugee camp. Besides those, I came to realize
that it took about 2 years of background work to organize the camp. It was my
first experience of being in a foreign land for providing comprehensive eye
examinations of referred patients after a systematic screening. I found the
BEST protocol a low cost and effective way to do mass screening and provide
quality service at the community level. Apart from professional learning, I met
and became friends with colleagues from different parts of the world. All of
them had their own share of struggle and inspiring stories behind them. One
that inspired me the most was a colleague who had conquered leukemia. He could
make work an instant fun and always wore an agreeable smile.
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| Wayne wearing a complacent smile! |
I would like to thank Wayne Tennet, for choosing Better Vision
Foundation Nepal as collaborative hands for an exemplary project, Maud for
inspiring me to be a leader and cultivate networking skill, Dr. Sri for
providing a different perspective of community eye health and to all my
colleagues who participated in the camp from whom I got chance to learn
something new. Also, I am thankful to my team at Better Vision Foundation Nepal for believing me and providing this great
opportunity.
So, this is it. Hope you enjoyed Ms Devkota’s story. She graduated from Institute of Medicine; and is the Founding and Executive Board Member of Better Vision Foundation Nepal.
If you want to share your story, please pitch us at: [email protected] or [email protected]. We would be glad to
feature your story and let them spread to the wider audience.
Click below to read the inspiring stories of:
Rajendra Gyawali, one of the first Scientia Scholar optometrists from Nepal
Dr. Sanjay Marasini, who has a major contribution in finding treatment of ulcers through UV light.
Dr. Nabin Raj Joshi, who is involved in the optical industrial researches in the US
Dr. Sedinam Forfoe, Optometrist from Ghana, who shares his experience while he was in Nepal
Dr. Chundak Tenzing, a significant persona in global eye care
Suresh Awasthi, an optometrist who blends himself in to the society
: A Journey to the Unserved){kind=link}
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