Looking toward the future means a lot to a newly chartered group at Saint Louis University.
On Sept. 30, the national not-for-profit organization Unite for Sight officially chartered a SLU chapter. Unite for Sight promotes the education needed to fight preventable blindness and SLU’s chapter, while still under probationary status through Student Government Association, will attempt to do just that.
“We just really wanted to get involved in the community aspects of medicine… and eye-care was an opportunity that really presented itself well,” said Krishi Peddada, SLU’s Unite for Sight chapter president.
Community involvement motivated the founding members of SLU’s chapter to pursue an official charter through Unite for Sight. According to its members, the process for gaining the charter was extensive, yet fulfilling.
Phone interviews, essays, online classes, countless applications and lessons on patient interaction and cultural competency were all a part of the endeavor. Even in its exhaustiveness, members of the chapter relished the opportunity, since all the material was relevant to health care, its professions and the health care system. Anit Behera, chair of SLU’s chapter, was satisfied with the process and its outcome.
“The organization structure for Unite for Sight [training] was fabulous,” Behera said.
With the titles of “Community Fellows” finally achieved, the members can now reach out into the St. Louis area and begin their mission to battle eye disease. Education is the group’s weapon of choice in fighting against preventable blindness.
“A major component of the program is vision education,” Peddada said.
Composed of seven executive board members and a few other volunteers, SLU’s Unite for Sight chapter utilizes the prevention through education approach in the form of at least two “community events” per month. Those events will give the opportunity for underinsured and noninsured individuals to receive tools needed for proper eye-care, like coming in contact with organizations such as Vision USA, which aids patients by providing free complete eye exams performed by licensed optometrists.
“Basically we’re…gearing our focus to the [surrounding] community,” said Felicia Timmermann, vice president of Vision Screenings. Although the group feels that individuals outside of campus are more directly affected by eye issues, the chapter does not forget its local roots and has already held programs at SLU.
The first on-campus events sponsored by the chapter were a part of SLU Vision Day and were held on Oct. 30.
Activities consisted of a bake sale—proceeds were donated in their entirety to the national Unite for Sight organization—and free vision acuity screenings for SLU students. Vision Day provided students with Halloween -themed treats and “tips and fun facts about taking care of their eyes,” Peddada said.
Though the group is chartered on SLU’s campus and wants “to try…to have more events at SLU,” members understand that the University environment is not all there is to it.
“SLU is part of a community [itself], the St. Louis Community,” Behera said.
With that in mind, the SLU chapter of Unite for Sight will continue serving those in need of proper eye-care while fighting the war against preventable blindness.
For more information regarding SLU’s chapter of Unite for Sight, contact Krishi Peddada at [email protected].