Hermanus Rotary Club partnered with the Department of Health and Wellness’s mobile bus service recently to provide reading glasses to people living in the outlying community of Baardskeerdersbos.
With this partnership six people were able to receive new reading glasses that met their specific needs. Freek Felix, one of the recipients, was extremely excited and grateful. He said he decided to visit the mobile bus when he noticed the vision in one of his eyes started becoming grey and blurry.
With his new reading glasses Felix can now see the way he used to. “I am grateful and proud that I can see now especially with such nice glasses!” he exclaimed.
The Hermanus Rotary Club has worked with the Department of Health and Wellness for many years and during a health outreach held during October last year they saw the need to provide further eye tests and reading glasses to the community.
Along with Sister Martina Gardiner, clinical nurse practitioner who services the area on the mobile bus, the Rotary Club was able to identify the people in need of reading glasses.
Ferdi Maree, member of the Hermanus Rotary Club, said the club then roped in the services of Fred ten Have from Budget Optix, an optometrist the Rotary Club is associated with, who gladly supplied the service at cost price.
Hermanus Rotary Club provided transport to Hermanus (60 km away) where the eye test was done. The beneficiaries were each able to choose their own frame.
Another recipient, Bonita Goss, said she extremely grateful for her new glasses and the health service, which she receives. “I do needlework to generate an income and for a while I have not been able to work because I was unable to see. I am so grateful that I am now able to see without a hassle. Thank you to the Rotary Club for making this possible so quickly.”
Apart from monthly trip to town, most farming communities are only able to access primary health-care services via the mobile clinics offered by Western Cape Government Health and Wellness. Gardiner said Hermanus Rotary Club’s assistance had been a great help in bringing much-needed relief to the community.
“When we notice patients have trouble seeing we refer them to Gansbaai Clinic, which is 25 km away from Baardskeerdersbos,” she pointed out. “They are then placed on a waiting list and could wait quite some time to receive glasses.”
Gardiner and the mobile clinic services 80 farms in the area on a monthly basis and aims to provide a comprehensive service to these outlying communities that otherwise have no access to health services. She also works with a local social worker based at Hermanus Hospital to provide food parcels and clothes to those in need.
