A brother and sister originally from Yorkton returned this summer from separate trips to help some of the world's poorest people.
Devan and Taisa Trischuk have both chosen to enter healthcare fields. Devan, 24, is in his final year of Optometry at the University of Waterloo. Taisa, 23, is finishing her Pharmacy degree at the U of S.
Recently, each of them began investigating volunteer opportunities relating to their fields in various developing countries. Devan eventually settled on a two-week optometry mission to Ecuador organized by Lions Clubs International and OneSight, a charitable foundation of eyewear manufacturer Luxottica.
Taisa chose a longer six-week trip to Uganda for part of the Mobile Pharmacy in Northern Uganda Project organized by the International Pharmacy Students Federation.
Devan departed in May and arrived in Riobamba, Ecuador as the only Canadian in a 40-member eye care group--13 optometrists and 27 nonprofessional volunteers. The Lion's Club transported residents of the surrounding rural areas down to the clinic each morning.
Over 10 days, the group attended to more than 10,000 people.
"They were bringing in people who had really never had any type of healthcare in their lives," says Devan.
The optometry student personal saw about 100 people each day, giving them a cursory eye exam to determine their approximate prescription and any health issues afflicting their eyes. Patients were then provided with free eyeglasses, medication, and in some cases a referral to a medical doctor.
Visiting a mountain village of Ecuador and meeting with people who had been living the same simple lifestyle for thousands of years was an eye-opening experience, Devan says.
"It was amazing to see how hard they were working and the appreciation they had for anything we could give them. To me, just doing a fast eye exam and trying to get as close to their prescription as I could, it didn't seem like I was doing anything special. But to them, it's maybe one of the best things that's happened in their lives."
Taisa left for Uganda the same month, joining a small group of pharmacy students in the Pader District to assist a local doctor with providing healthcare to residents made homeless by war. The group traveled to one of six displaced persons camps each day, treating wounds, malaria, skin infections, and other minor or serious conditions.
Their medical services were badly needed, but the group could only see about 150 people each day.
"People would hear of us coming to the camps and there were cases where women and their children would walk all night to come see us in the morning," Taisa says. "Then they'd wait all day just because they knew they would get better healthcare than they could get anywhere else."
The pharmacy student knew that many of the treatments she and the rest of the group were providing would save the lives of patients or spare them from disfiguration. She was taken aback by the cheerfulness of the northern Ugandan people as they lived in conditions that most in the west would consider abysmal.
"It changes your outlook on life when you see what other people are going through. It makes you realize how unimportant some of the things are that we worry about."
Devan's trip to Ecuador was similarly affecting.
"Some kids with high prescriptions had gone their whole lives thinking that the world is just a big blur.
To put glasses on them and to see their expressions and their smiles as they see the world clearly for the first time in their lives - it's a good feeling."
As learning experiences, as well, the visits were extremely valuable: both students saw a massive volume of patients in a short time, many of them afflicted with conditions they would never come across in Canada.
"It was just an amazing experience. I would go back in a second, and I think I will someday," says Taisa.
For his part, once he is established in a practice, Devan hopes to spend a few weeks each year volunteering in developing countries.
The Mobile Pharmacy in Northern Uganda Project is currently on hold until next July as it raises additional funding. OneSight continuously holds eye health clinics at various locations around the world.
