From The Connecticut Post (http://www.connpost.com/living/ci_2828481)
Volunteer's vision
College student creates agency to help prevent blindness
AMANDA CUDA acuda@ctpost.com

Though it sounds clich, working in an ophthalmologist's office as a college student literally opened Jennifer Staple's eyes. Staple, now 23 and living in Newtown, worked as an assistant in a Danbury eye doctor's office at age 19, administering vision screenings and doing research. Through her work, she met numerous people who had lost their vision due to glaucoma and other afflictions. As she spoke to them, she realized that many of them had the same lament.

"I heard them say 'I wish I'd been to an eye doctor before I lost my sight,' " said Staple, then an undergraduate at Yale University.

It was then that she learned most cases of blindness are preventable. However, due to a lack of education or poor access to eye care, many people don't receive the eye exams and other services they need to preserve their sight.

Almost immediately, Staple wanted to do something. "There are so many people out there who are blind who don't need to be blind," she said.

In September of 2000, Staple started Unite for Sight, a nonprofit organization aimed at providing eye care and vision education to the underserved.

The effort started small, with vision screenings at soup kitchens along the New Haven Green. In one short year, she had screened nearly 500 people. Today, there are 90 Unite For Sight chapters in 25 countries, with about 4,000 volunteers worldwide. The group's efforts also have expanded from vision screenings and eye care education, to include sight-restoring surgery and eyeglass donations.

Almost from the beginning, Staple saw how her efforts could make a difference. For instance, while working at a New Haven soup kitchen, Staple met a man who told her he couldn't see out of one eye because he had a lazy eye.

It's something that could have been prevented if caught at the right time, Staple said. "If it's treated before age 5, you can regain sight," she said. "But he wasn't diagnosed until age 10."

She saw this as inspiration to offer education and vision testing for kids, particularly preschoolers. Though many kindergarten through 12 schools offer vision testing, Staple said that a lot of them don't, and that it's really the children who are younger than school age who most benefit from early detection of vision problems. The tests were given at the New Haven Public Library, and those with vision problems were referred to health- care programs that would provide them with free or low-cost care. After graduating from Yale in 2003, Staple expanded Unite For Sight's efforts, mostly through word of mouth. She contacted a number of universities to see if any students were interested in starting their own chapters.

Many students jumped on board, including Catherine O'Conor, a second-year medical student at the University of Connecticut who started that school's Unite for Sight chapter about a year ago.

"It was my first year at UConn and I was looking for something to get involved with," she said. "[Unite for Sight] just seemed like something kind of tangible."

Since starting the chapter, O'Conor's engineered such projects as eyeglass drives, with donations passed along to those in need. "It's been really great," she said. "People are really excited about it."

Staple's legions of volunteers all have different duties ?" some conduct vision tests, others collect eyeglasses and still others work on the group's Web site. Training for most domestic volunteers is relatively simple, Staple said.

They all view a training video that teaches them how to give the exam, and take an on-line eye health course. The vision screenings that Unite For Sight offers are pretty basic, Staple said, and use the standard visual acuity chart (the one with the big E at the top).

Subjects are asked to read through the chart, and their sight is rated. If a vision problem is detected, the volunteer refers the person to Unite For Sight's nearest partner eye clinic for further testing. However, even those with perfect vision are usually referred for further testing, Staple said, just in case there is a latent problem.

Though it may be simple, directing people to quality eye care is essential, said Dr. Matthew Paul, director of clinical research at Danbury Eye Physicians and Surgeons. It was while working in Paul's office that Staple learned about the prevalence of preventable blindness.

Paul agreed that many vision problems are treatable, such as cataracts, or preventable, such as those caused by glaucoma or macular degeneration. Though Paul hasn't been involved in any Unite For Sight vision tests, he does collect eyeglasses for the project and hopes to expand his involvement in the future. He said that one of the great things about the group is that its goal is one that pretty much anyone can get on board with.

"The one thing you'll never hear anybody argue is that getting people to see is a bad thing," Paul said. "This is a public health issue that everyone can support."

Following the success of the domestic programs, Staple received a request from someone in Ghana, expressing a great need for eye care in that African country. Staple and volunteers have conducted vision screenings, educational seminars and provided transportation to eye clinics in that country. The latter is a particular challenge as the nearest clinic is sometimes hours away for patients.

Ghana led Unite For Sight to work in other African and Asian countries, including India, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. In fact, most of the nearly 100 sight-restoring surgeries that Unite For Sight has helped facilitate have been in these countries. The international surgeries are funded by the U. S. Agency for International Development, an independent government agency that conducts foreign assistance and humanitarian aid. Staple said that she prefers to use surgeons within the country, but has sent for doctors from other countries, including the United States and Canada.

Volunteering to work abroad is a bigger commitment than working with the domestic program, Staple said. First of all, international volunteers must pay for their own airfare. The training also is more rigorous, and requires the volunteer to shadow an ophthalmologist in his or her community.

Unite For Sight treats a number of eye problems in its international patients, the most common of which is cataracts. Surgery to remove cataracts is relatively cheap, Staple said ?" about $50 ?" but that means nothing if you don't have access to care.

People in these countries have been touchingly grateful for the program's services, she said, recalling a story that one of her volunteers in Ghana told her about a man who lost sight in both eyes. Unite for Sight helped connect him with a surgeon who restored his vision. The man expressed his thankfulness to the volunteer in a unique way.

"He gave her a chicken," Staple said.

Staple's accomplishments are even more astounding, considering that she has balanced her Unite For Sight efforts with finishing her undergraduate education, working as a high school science teacher at Westport's Greens Farms Academy and applying to medical schools. (She starts med school at Stanford University in the fall.)

However, she's used her crowded schedule to her advantage, encouraging her high school students to get on board with her project. One of these is Morgan Williams, 17, of Ridgefield, who will be a senior at Greens Farms in the fall.

Staple was her teacher last year and "really inspired me to take part" in Unite For Sight, Williams said.

She and other students collected eyeglasses and participating in two vision screenings at the Bridgeport Rescue Mission. Williams liked helping out, and hopes to get involved with Unite For Sight's international programs after she finishes high school.

"Eye care is really overlooked," she said, adding that good vision is especially important for those served by homeless shelters.

"A lot of them are supposed to get jobs or learn English," Williams said. "I don't see how you can do that if you have issues with your sight."

Staple said she hopes to continue promoting sight awareness, even as she pursues medical school in the fall.

"There is such a great need, nationally and internationally," she said.

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