‘They can see!’
Lion Mits Tamiyasu completes another vision mission
in Mexico

Submitted photos
Mits Tamiyasu, poses next to the eye charts which tested the eyes of 2,014 people in San Blas, Mexico.

By ESTHER K. SMITH
News staff writer
December 2, 2006

More than 2,000 men, women and children in the San Blas area of Mexico can see clearly now, thanks to the Oregon Lions Sight and Hearing Foundation and its volunteers.

“Some women, they cried,” said Mits Tamiyasu, one of the volunteers who made the trip. “One woman had three kids and had never really seen them; just shadows moving around. It was the first time she’d seen their eyes and ears and faces — she just bawled.”

“You cry, too,” said Sharon Elder of Portland, another volunteer who was on the trip. “It’s very emotional. You see the impact it makes on people’s lives.”

Tamiyasu and Elder, along with an ophthalmologist, optometrists, opticians, nurses and 28 other volunteers, spent a week fitting donated eyeglasses to those who needed but couldn’t afford them. They also handed out nonprescription sunglasses and glasses cases.

San Blas is two hours by bus north of Puerto Vallarta. The local Lions Club bused people in from outlying areas where they not only had their vision screened but were also tested for diabetes and blood pressure. Once the optometrist had determined the prescription, volunteers searched through the 8,000 pairs of donated eyeglasses to find the right ones.

Lion volunteer Linda West works with a patient to see if the prescription is a good fit.

“There were about 50 that we didn’t have the right glasses for,” Tamiyasu said. “So we took the list and sent them down later. They generally have what people need, though.”

This was the seventh such trip made by the Oregon Lions Sight and Hearing Foundation, according to Elder. She calls them “volunteer vacations,” because in addition to the five-day clinic the volunteers have a few days of touring time. Tamiyasu has been on four of the trips.

So far the vision and health clinic has been held in locations throughout the Mexican states of Nayarit, Michoacan and Jalisco. More than 10,000 used eyeglasses have been given to those in need at these clinics.

“Most of the volunteers are Lions,” Elder said. “We’ve had non-Lions on the trips before, and usually what happens is they are so impressed by the experience that they come back and become Lions.”

The OLSHF administers the Lions Eyeglasses Recycling Program for the state of Oregon. In Oregon alone, more than 100,000 pairs of eyeglasses are collected every year from communities across the state. The process begins with drop boxes in neighborhood businesses.

Local volunteers pick up donated glasses from the boxes and send them to the OLSHF office in Portland. According to the OLSHF Web site, every second Wednesday of the month there is an eyeglass sorting party, where collected eyeglasses are pre-sorted by removing any cases or loose lenses before processing.

San Blas Mayor Miguel Bernal and his wife, Paula,
who is in charge of the local health clinic. Both are members of the Lions Club.

The eyeglasses are then sent to one of two locations to be calibrated, to find out the exact prescription: the Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville and the Angel Job Corps in Yachats, Ore. At the former, the program gives several women a chance to give back to the community, and at the latter, disadvantaged and other youth are trained to work in optical offices.

Once calibrated, the glasses are boxed up and sent back to Portland where they are ready to be sent on mission trips.

The people who benefit from the eyeglass recycling program are not at all worried about making a fashion statement, Tamiyasu said.

“If it fits their eyes, it doesn’t matter whether it’s for men or women — they can see!” he said. “It’s amazing what a difference it can make in a person’s life.”