[Nfb-seniors] Fwd: Volunteer Service in Africa and Asia

[David Andrews]

>
>Please forward widely.
>
>Unite For Sight Volunteer Abroad Opportunities: 
>As Featured Weekly On CNN International and Recently in NY Times
>
>Volunteer Abroad in Summer, Fall, Winter, or 
>Spring: 
><http://slate.technolutions.com/go?b92730e6b0a14f279022bd6304994f3e&r=http%3a%2f%2fwww.uniteforsight.org%2fintl_volunteer>http://www.uniteforsight.org/intl_volunteer
>
>WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF VOLUNTEERS LIKE YOU, 
>UNITE FOR SIGHT RESTORED SIGHT TO 10,062 
>PATIENTS AND PROVIDED EYE CARE TO 300,000 IN 2006 AND 2007
>
>How Do I Apply? The application as well as 
>complete details about Unite For Sight's 
>international opportunities are available at 
><http://slate.technolutions.com/go?b92730e6b0a14f279022bd6304994f3e&r=http%3a%2f%2fwww.uniteforsight.org%2fintl_volunteer%2f>http://www.uniteforsight.org/intl_volunteer/
>
>Who Is Eligible To Volunteer Abroad?: Volunteers 
>are 18 years and older, and there is no upper 
>age limit. Volunteers range from 
>undergraduate/college students to medical and 
>optometry students, public health students and 
>professionals, business students, filmmakers and 
>photographers, nurses and nursing students, 
>physician's assistants, teachers and educators, 
>opticians, optometrists and ophthalmologists.
>
>What is Unite For Sight's Mission? Unite For 
>Sight is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that 
>empowers communities worldwide to improve eye 
>health and eliminate preventable blindness.
>
>Unite For Sight's work to prevent blindness and 
>restore sight is featured weekly on CNN 
>INTERNATIONAL from September 2007-August 2008.
>
>What Do Volunteers Do?: Volunteers receive 
>hands-on clinical experience while assisting 
>doctors in remote, rural villages. Volunteers 
>learn about international health and eye care, 
>learn clinical skills while working with 
>patients and doctors, and, in one program 
>location, have an opportunity to practice cataract surgery on a goat's eye.
>
>The goal of Unite For Sight and its partner eye 
>clinics and communities is to create eye 
>disease-free communities. Unite For Sight’s 
>volunteers (local and visiting) work with 
>partner eye clinics to provide eye care in 
>communities without previous access. The eye 
>clinic’s eye doctors and Unite For Sight 
>volunteers jointly provide community-based 
>screening programs in rural villages. The 
>clinic’s eye doctors diagnose and treat eye 
>disease in the field, and surgical patients are 
>brought to the eye clinic for surgery. Patients 
>receive free surgery funded by Unite For Sight 
>so that no patient remains blind due to lack of 
>funds. Volunteers immediately see the joy on 
>patients' faces when their sight is restored 
>after years of blindness. These memories last a lifetime.
>
>While helping the community, volunteers are in a 
>position to witness and draw their own 
>conclusions about the failures and inequities of 
>global health systems. It broadens their view of 
>what works, and what role they can have to 
>insure a health system that works for everyone 
>and that leaves no person blind in the future.
>
>What Do Volunteers Say?:
>
>“During my volunteering experience, I realized 
>that Unite for Sight’s service is a campaign for 
>the salvation of humanity that allows the light 
>of compassion to shine through each of us. I 
>believe it is this display of altruism and 
>commitment that makes the organization’s service 
>so virtuous and treasured by both volunteers and 
>patients. After all, making a difference in the 
>world is not so difficult if only one would care 
>enough to sacrifice a part of oneself in order 
>to change the world for the better. My 
>experience as a Unite for Sight volunteer has 
>inspired me to dedicate my future career to 
>serving underprivileged communities around the 
>world.”­Chiwing “Jessica” Qu, Yale University 
>Undergraduate Student, Unite For Sight Volunteer in Chennai, India
>
>"I can honestly say that everything I learned in 
>3 years of medical school paled in comparison to 
>the 3 week experience I had in Accra (Ghana) in 
>October 2007 as part of Unite For Sight. The 
>program provides volunteers with a unique and 
>hands-on involvement – being able to help out to 
>the level of your training and comfort. My 
>experience taught me that Ghanaian people are 
>the friendliest people I have interacted with 
>anywhere in the world, that ordinary people 
>involved with Unite For Sight are making 
>extraordinary differences, and that sitting in a 
>classroom receiving a world-class education 
>cannot match real life experiences while 
>volunteering."--Varun Verma, UMDNJ Medical 
>Student, Unite For Sight Volunteer in Accra, Ghana
>
>"While in Ghana, I worked with an 
>ophthalmologist (Dr. James Clarke), two eye 
>nurses (Robert Dolo, Kartee Karloweah), an 
>assistant (Bismark Boryor), and a coordinator 
>(Seth). Working with the Unite for Sight team on 
>these outreaches in service to these wonderful 
>people of Ghana was the single most rewarding 
>work I've done in my life. The people of Ghana 
>are some of the friendliest and most thankful of 
>anyone I have ever met. Overall, the experience 
>has changed the way I view the world, my own 
>country, and my role in the world forever. The 
>only way to understand the way 4/5 of the world 
>lives is to go yourself and get involved. The 
>staff I worked with that are the heart and soul 
>of Unite for Sight in Accra were some of the 
>brightest and hard working individuals I have 
>ever met. They are accomplishing feats few ever 
>accomplish in their lives, and I am truly 
>blessed to have had the opportunity to work with 
>them and now call them my friends. I look 
>forward to future work with Unite for Sight as 
>an Ophthalmologist. The task at hand in Ghana, 
>and I'm sure in all of Unite for Sight's 
>locations throughout the world, is enormous. The 
>more people that get involved, the more 
>accessible services will be to these wonderful 
>people. Plain and simple, the more we help, the 
>more people can see the world they live 
>in!”­Brian Fowler, Medical Student at University 
>of Virginia, Unite For Sight Volunteer in Accra, Ghana
>
>Hundreds of volunteer narratives, volunteer 
>diaries, as well as videos of alumni volunteers 
>and partner eye doctors are available on the 
>Unite For Sight website: 
><http://slate.technolutions.com/go?b92730e6b0a14f279022bd6304994f3e&r=http%3a%2f%2fwww.uniteforsight.org%2fintl_volunteer>http://www.uniteforsight.org/intl_volunteer