For Mr Sylvester Prasad, the generosity of several Australian benefactors meant he could bridge vision care gaps within his Fijian community with his new optical dispensing certification. Grateful for the opportunity, he is working hard to pay this goodwill forward.
Armed with a certificate in electronic engineering, Mr Sylvester Prasad’s initial exposure to eyecare was a camera installation in an optometry clinic in Ba, Fiji.
This would become a regular occurrence where he would accumulate valuable knowledge of the industry through his technician work, while simultaneously managing his sugarcane farm.
During his time as a technician, he saw a necessity for eyecare services in the local area and, wanting to contribute to the health outcomes of the community, he asked the manager of the clinic if he could take on additional responsibility.
“The people in the local area were suffering with their eye health and they didn’t know what to do about it. So, I wanted to get more heavily involved,” Prasad says. “There’s a lot of people out here who aren’t aware of what’s going to happen when their eyesight fails them.”
Within a year, he went from completing patient registrations to voluntarily conducting visual field testing, where he then received an offer from Opticare Eye Center in Western Lautoka as a dispensing technician in 2019. As part of his work at the practice, Prasad conducts mobile clinic services, where he travels to isolated villages and localities, screens for visual acuity, and conducts refractions.
It’s been a worthwhile venture, but Prasad knew he could have an even greater impact with more formalised optical training.
Mr Mark Hansen, an optometrist from Orange in NSW who had supported aid work in Fiji, heard about Prasad through colleagues, and recommended he was sponsored to complete the Cert IV in Optical Dispensing at the Australasian College of Optical Dispensing (ACOD).
Prasad received an offer to enrol from Mr James Gibbins, director and senior trainer at ACOD, with the college sponsoring 50% of the course fees, and Hansen the remaining 50%, marking the first student sponsorship made by the college.
With his course set to begin in 2020, COVID delayed Prasad’s ability to attend workshops, so it wasn’t until 2022 that he was able to fulfil the requirements of his certificate.
He covered his travel costs to New Zealand while the course fees were covered by ACOD and Hansen. He completed four workshops of four days each and was able to finish the course in December 2023.
The certificate, according to Gibbins, equipped Prasad with the expertise required to deliver the level of care his community needed.
“He’s a far more confident optical dispenser. Optical services are extremely limited in Fiji. So not only can he work in his commercial practice much more successfully, he can also work in their volunteer aid work that he’s been doing for years there. He’s far more confident in his village outreach as well,” Gibbins says.
Prasad’s gratitude and motivation to complete the course was driven by his desire to service the eyecare needs of and provide clarity to the people of Fiji.
“Without being an optical dispenser, I wouldn’t be able to do the mobile clinic and couldn’t help all the people I am helping now. And so, I’m really thankful for the sponsors. I do believe that without their help, I wouldn’t have achieved much of this yet,” Prasad says.
Gibbins adds: “He was delightful in class, incredibly dedicated to his studies, and polite, quiet, courteous, extremely appreciative and hardworking.”
A vital part of the training experience is graduating alongside one’s peers. To fund Prasad’s graduation in December 2023, Gibbins searched for sponsors, and Specsavers agreed to cover his out-of-pocket expenses. This included for him to attend the adjoining three-day conference which was embedded as an event at the graduation.
Hansen contributed $500 and an anonymous donor contributed $200 as well, which allowed for Prasad’s wife, Kitty, to attend.
“It was such a thrilling moment for me to know that everything was being taken care of,” Prasad says.
Goodwill on a large scale
Wielding his new Certificate IV in Optical Dispensing, Prasad is now playing an integral role in Optical Dispensers Australia (ODA) upcoming aid trip to Viti Levu, Fiji in July 2024.
The aid trip will comprise a team of 12, including two optometrists and 10 optical dispensers. ODA will coordinate large village outreach, specifically targeting isolated villages being targeted with donated frames and lenses.
Visual screening and refractions will be conducted, and then full prescription spectacles fabricated in Lautoka and sent back to the communities.
Prasad wants to help his people be more engaged in this space, so he has been raising awareness of the Cert IV to his peers so they can give back to their local community in the same way.
“There are at least two or three students enrolled in the course, that are working in the clinic right now,” Prasad says.
Despite being the first and only sponsorship by ACOD, Gibbins says he hopes this won’t be the last.
“We’re open to doing it again. If there is another highly recommended person in the South Pacific or elsewhere; we’d love to consider it,” he says.
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