Volunteer Trip Overseas

VOSO (Volunteer Ophthalmic Services Overseas) is a charitable trust administered by the NZAO, and provides donated eye exams, spectacles and surgery to the people of the Pacific Islands. Several trips of a fortnight each travel to various Pacific countries each year. The photos show some images of Annette's Voso trips to Labasa (Fiji) and Pago Pago (American Samoa). The queues of people wanting eye care are long, and all we can do is work as hard as we can. The hopsital staff in Labasa translated for us, and I was happy to have the aircon at the hospital. In American Samoa, I spent a week in a small health centre in the west of Tutuila then a few days a various sits in the east, including working out of the chief nurse's back bedroom (as the health centre had blown down some years before). So, when you donate your old spectacles, in good condition, to your local NZAO optometrist, be happy because you know they will go to a good home in the Pacific.