At the Monday night Wilmington Lions Club meeting, two optometry students from The Ohio State University gave a presentation about an organization that they belong to called SVOSH (Student Volunteer Optometric Services to Humanity).
The local chapter at OSU was founded in 1984, and its purpose is to give students valuable experience in their training while providing eye and vision care services for people in underserved populations who do not have access to local eye care.
Member students work year-round to prepare for these missions of service and are only qualified to participate on a trip when they complete certain requirements being: complete a number of volunteer hours in community-related services, complete required number of hours working as assistants in a lab, write and mail out letters to Lions Clubs requesting used eye glasses and funds, and finally, doing presentations to Lions Clubs describing what SVOSH is and its mission.
The Wilmington Lions along with other Ohio Lions Clubs provide used eyeglasses and make annual financial donations to the OSU SVOSH organization. Student volunteers after receiving used eyeglasses clean and go over each pair and determine the prescription and label each pair to be given to a patient who’s need best matches the prescription available.
While on a mission volunteers use hand-held equipment to test a person’s eyes and numerous people are examined in the short time they are on a trip.
The OSU students are looking forward to when they will have their opportunity to travel to a foreign country.
