Aussies get screen time in the Philippines

 

 

Audiologist Penelope Barrett.

Every October for the past 13 years, the Rotary Club of Canterbury, Australia, has sent a team to the Philippines to conduct vision and hearing screenings alongside volunteers from more than 20 Philippine Rotary clubs and local health organizations. In 2009, the team incorporated dental screenings for the first time on its trip to the capital, Manila, and to Bohol Island, in the south-central part of the country.

The volunteers included three Australian orthoptics students – participants in a club vocational service project to provide them with field experience – as well as audiologist Penelope Barrett of Wollongong, who was caught in action by team leader James Clements as she checked a young patient’s ears at a Bohol Island school.