THERE is an urgent need for more eye and ear clinics in the Western Division.
This is the view of Project Heaven as men and women patiently queued up at the Crest Fiji Agriculture Show 2012 awaiting free eye examinations on Tuesday.
Taraivina Madigi, the team leader for Project Heaven, the organisation conducting the free eye tests, said examiners did not get a chance for a breather as people came in droves and waited their turn.
"The response has been more than overwhelming. What really amazed me was the fact that we did not make any announcements from the main dais. As soon as we arrived and began setting up, people stopped by and asked us what was happening and then the queues started," she said.
Project Heaven was invited to participate at the show by the Department of Social Welfare.
Ms Madigi said Project Heaven was an organisation specifically set up to address hearing and vision impairments.
"Our work mainly centres around screening the eyes and ears of schoolchildren. But being a part of the agriculture show gave us opportunity to reach out to the wider community. We assist people by conducting free eye checks and writing prescriptions for spectacles. In cases where the impairments are of a more serious nature, we refer the patients to optometrists or ophthalmologists," said Ms Madigi.