Keeler equips optoms for international effort in Belize

Equipment donated by the US division of British ophthalmic instrument manufacturer Keeler was recently used by a team from the New England College of Optometry (NECO) during a charitable mission trip to the Stann Creek District in south-eastern Belize.

Members of NECO’s Fellowship of Christian Optometrists (FCO) partnered with His Servants Ministries to provide services in what the organisations said was a desperately underserved region.

Thirteen NECO students spent five days conducting exams, dispensing medications, providing protective eyewear and referring patients for follow up care. Among the equipment donated were portable slit lamps and Vantage Plus binocular indirect ophthalmoscopes.

The team saw 745 patients for eye exams, with most provided with reading glasses and safety goggles, along with medications for glaucoma and allergies.