Missionaries perform valued service in vision center
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BANGKOK, THAILAND
Elder Avery Garner and Elder Ruban Carlile of the Thailand Bangkok Mission perform a valued service at a vision center every two weeks.
The missionaries' duties range from assisting the local eye doctors with examinations for near-sightedness and far-sightedness to testing for glaucoma. The missionaries have also learned to grind lenses and are capable of working various testing machines.
They work three hours, 9 a.m. to noon, with patients at the government hospital Watrairengnakhonpha, located east of central Bangkok. The project has been ongoing since last year under the direction of health educator Patree Polsalee.
The vision center within the hospital is for those who cannot afford eye care. Patients receive all exams and, if necessary, prescription eye glasses free of charge.
"As we watched these elders perform their duties, it was evident that they were compassionate and considerate of the needs of the Thai people they were assisting," said Sister Annette Hardy who, with her husband, Elder Keith Hardy, serves as a public affairs missionary in Thailand. "Their efforts were well accepted by those who waited in endless lines for eye exams."
The vision center has a staff of 10 doctors who see an average of 400 patients a day. Thais enter the vision clinic, take a number and wait.
