Tabuk City, Kalinga - An eye . medical mission conducted here by optometrists and optometry students from the Amigos ofthe Pacific University (AFU) College of Optometry in New Groove, Oregon was cut short after the group ran out of glasses.
The mission which started on March 22 and supposed to last until March 25, was terminated on March 24 with those coming on the 25th turned away.
Natividad Sugguiyao, president of the Rotary Club of Tabuk, which, along with the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, organized the eye mission, informed the media that after serving more or less 3,000 eye patients, the mission wasn't able to accommodate some 300 patients who came on the fourth day due to the exhaustion of their supply of reading glasses.
In behalf of the Rotary Club of Tabuk, Sugguiyao apologized to those who were not served on account of the shortage of the supply.
She also relayed that Dr Thomas Barreto, one of the three AFU optometrists who held the clinic, had said that they are leaving with a heavy heart and had vowed to return in two years.
Sugguiyao said the AFU group which is conducting eye missions all over the world came to Tabuk for the first time in 2006 and that at that time, even after serving 2,000 patients, the group had not run out of glasses.
According to Sugguiyao, in addition to the check-up and free glasses, in partnership with the College of Optometry of the University of Santo Tomas (UST), the 2006 mission conducted operation on patients with cataracts.
Saying that during this mission, some 91 patients were found out to need cataract operations, Sugguiyao announced that arrangements have been made for them to have free operations at the UST provided that they go there on their own and pay the P6,000.00 fee for the operation room.
In reaction to various complaints and criticisms from the public on the conduct of the eye mission, Sugguiyao simply promised that there will be a better system next time.
Sugguiyao thanked Orlando Obar of the Lions' Club Corregidor in Los Angeles, California for coordinating with the AFU and likewise the Kalinga LGU for offering the KPH as venue for the mission. **By Estanislao Albano, Jr.
The mission which started on March 22 and supposed to last until March 25, was terminated on March 24 with those coming on the 25th turned away.
Natividad Sugguiyao, president of the Rotary Club of Tabuk, which, along with the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, organized the eye mission, informed the media that after serving more or less 3,000 eye patients, the mission wasn't able to accommodate some 300 patients who came on the fourth day due to the exhaustion of their supply of reading glasses.
In behalf of the Rotary Club of Tabuk, Sugguiyao apologized to those who were not served on account of the shortage of the supply.
She also relayed that Dr Thomas Barreto, one of the three AFU optometrists who held the clinic, had said that they are leaving with a heavy heart and had vowed to return in two years.
Sugguiyao said the AFU group which is conducting eye missions all over the world came to Tabuk for the first time in 2006 and that at that time, even after serving 2,000 patients, the group had not run out of glasses.
According to Sugguiyao, in addition to the check-up and free glasses, in partnership with the College of Optometry of the University of Santo Tomas (UST), the 2006 mission conducted operation on patients with cataracts.
Saying that during this mission, some 91 patients were found out to need cataract operations, Sugguiyao announced that arrangements have been made for them to have free operations at the UST provided that they go there on their own and pay the P6,000.00 fee for the operation room.
In reaction to various complaints and criticisms from the public on the conduct of the eye mission, Sugguiyao simply promised that there will be a better system next time.
Sugguiyao thanked Orlando Obar of the Lions' Club Corregidor in Los Angeles, California for coordinating with the AFU and likewise the Kalinga LGU for offering the KPH as venue for the mission. **By Estanislao Albano, Jr.
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