Operation Blessing delivered eyeglasses to tsunami survivors in the town of Hiraiso that had been prescribed at an OB eye clinic over a week ago.

Report from the field: OBI teams share their firsthand, eye-witness accounts of the relief efforts in Japan

HIRAISO, Japan - We spent another day delivering long awaited glasses, this time to the survivors of the small fishing village of Hiraiso. We had conducted an eye clinic there some 10 days previously. Once again, tsunami victims were excited to be able to see properly again.

After we finished the delivery, Ms. Satoh (our main contact in the village) and her sister led us through more devastated fishing villages, and then sent us to Toyoma Town. Toyoma is an inland town where the people of the wiped out fishing village of Togura had evacuated to, and where Operation Blessing had been invited to come and set up our free eyeglass clinic.

Our main contact was Mrs. Kondoh, a colleague of Ms. Satoh from the local general hospital in a nearby town that had been completely destroyed. She is living in the shelter with her husband, two teenage children, and her parents. When the quake/tsunami struck, the family members were all in different places. Somehow, each of them managed to escape to a nearby evacuation center, but it wasn’t until five days later that they all found each other and were reunited in the same shelter.

Operation Blessing also conducted an eye clinic in Toyoma Town.

Ms. Kondoh expressed to us how happy the people were to receive this kind of personalized eye care. She described life in the shelter as being very busy; each of the 200 people in the shelter has some sort of task to do. We have found the Japanese shelters are organized very quickly, and all are expected to pitch in and help with anything that is needed. They do their own cooking, cleaning, and taking care of each other.

Tomorrow we head for the village of Oosu, to conduct an eye clinic in another decimated fishing village just north of the also heavily damaged major fishing port of Ishinomaki. Operation Blessing continues to be on the go, bringing hope, and a new “outlook” for the future.

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