Check us out in the September 2020 issue of Rotary magazine:
1 ophthalmologist per 37,000 people in Costa Rica
In Alajuela, Costa Rica's "City of Mangoes," many people who need glasses have never had them. The Rotary Club of Alajuela worked with two California Rotary Clubs to hold two days of clinics at which they distributed eyeglasses to more than 600 people. "We purchased 800 pairs of glasses in an assortment of powers," says Will van Kranenburg of the Rotary Club of Templeton, California. The Rotary Club of Paso Robles contributed funds and van Kranenburg and fellow Templeton Club member Georgia Vreeken trained nine Paso Robles Rotarians to conducts the clinics, which were held in late February. Rotaractors helped deliver eyeglasses, and students of Alajuela's San Diego Bilingual High School served as translators.
"The experience left us with an enormous bond of solidarity, teamwork, coordination, and gratitude that we will always carry in our hearts," says Lucitania Zuniga Montoya, a member of the Alajuela Rotary club.