Helping Tongans see and be seen

United by a shared passion for eye health and advocacy, four EyesForGood volunteers set out to bring essential eyecare services to Tongan communities.

As well as ourselves, our team included professional teaching fellow Sachi Rathod and community coordinator Telusila Moala-Mafi Vea. We set out to provide comprehensive eye examinations and distribute new and donated glasses and sunglasses. With no ocular prosthetic services on the island, we also addressed a critical need there. The negative psychosocial and quality-of-life impacts of eye loss are profound, so this service brought new hope and confidence to patients, their families and communities.

Our mission was not only about immediate care but also sustainability. As part of this, there were sessions with Tongan eye nurses focusing on clinical skills and discussions about keratoconus and myopia and their risk factors. The eye nurses were especially fascinated by prosthesis fabrication in the prosthetic clinic, a service they had not seen before. Over the course of the visit, they learned about prosthesis care and we trained them to provide annual prosthesis checks and polishes.

Polishing Prosthesis (1) — Janice Yeoman (left) teaches an eye nurse how to polish a prosthesis

Over four and a half days, we saw 210 patients, mostly at the Vaiola Hospital in the capital, Nuku’alofa, but also at the Tonga Red Cross Society to check the eyes of children with disabilities. The cases we encountered were varied and included uncorrected refractive errors, for which we prescribed 172 pairs of glasses. The team also encountered numerous cataracts and many cases of diabetic retinopathy, keratoconus and pterygia.

Toddle Eye Check — Germaine Joblin conducts a toddler eye check

With five to six hours of clinic time required to produce each prosthesis, the success of the prosthetics clinic was down to efficient multi-tasking and exceptional support from the local nurses. By the end of our visit, nine people had each received a new prosthesis. All but one of them had lost their eyes as a result of an injury, and more than half had never had a prosthesis before. The prostheses we replaced were close to 20 years old and in very damaged states, resulting in socket complications and poor cosmesis.

One of the standout moments was meeting the Tongan prime minister, Hu'akavameiliku. He was affable and articulate and he quickly took action by sending the minister of health and his team to meet us at the hospital just four hours later to discuss the country’s eyecare situation.

With Tonga PM — The team, friends and family meet with Tongan prime minister Hu'akavameiliku

Kindness and warmth a standout

The team was also fortunate to experience Tonga’s rich culture and landscape. From participating in a local church service and swimming with humpback whales to watching the plumes of water from blowholes on the west coast and swimming in the eastern Anahulu cave, Tonga’s beauty and the kindness and warmth of its people never ceased to amaze us.

Our trip wasn’t just about providing glasses and prosthetic eyes, it was about building relationships, sharing knowledge and leaving behind sustainable practices that would benefit the Tongan community long after we had departed. We left the island not only having contributed to eye health but also having created lasting memories of friendship, culture and the beauty of the Tongan people. Malo ‘aupito!

Our trip would not have been possible without the generous donations and support of Max Grapengiesser from Eyewear Design, the New Zealand Prosthetic Eye service, Orewa Optics’ Grant Dabb, Blur Eyecare, Tanoa Hotel, Friendly Island Dental Clinic and PMN Tonga 531PI radio, Tonga Broadcom Broadcasting, Tonga High School Ex Students NZ Association and many others who advised us in the planning of this trip.

With Hosp Nurses — The EyesForGood team with eye nurses at Vaiola Hospital

Janice Yeoman is an optometrist and ocular prosthetist at the New Zealand Prosthetic Eye Service and doctoral candidate with the University of Auckland’s Department of Ophthalmology

Germaine Joblin is a therapeutically qualified optometrist who works in private practice and serves as a professional teaching fellow with the University of Auckland's Vision Bus Aotearoa.