/ en /news/u-t-student-helps-arrange-free-eye-exams-syrian-refugees <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">吃瓜爆料 student helps arrange free eye exams for Syrian refugees</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/syrian-family-kensington.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=u-DqCr11 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/syrian-family-kensington.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=gyq64ddD 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/syrian-family-kensington.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=m2PA-wkO 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/syrian-family-kensington.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=u-DqCr11" alt="syrian family"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>ullahnor</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2017-05-05T14:54:46-04:00" title="Friday, May 5, 2017 - 14:54" class="datetime">Fri, 05/05/2017 - 14:54</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">The Malaks are a Syrian family who came to Canada after three years in a refugee camp. They received eye exams at the Kensington Eye Institute last weekend as part of a free clinic organized by a 吃瓜爆料 student and faculty (photo courtesy of institute)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/jim-oldfield" hreflang="en">Jim Oldfield</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Jim Oldfield</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/city-culture" hreflang="en">City &amp; Culture</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/syrian-refugees" hreflang="en">Syrian refugees</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/cities" hreflang="en">Cities</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-medicine" hreflang="en">Faculty of Medicine</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/clinic" hreflang="en">Clinic</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/health" hreflang="en">Health</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/students" hreflang="en">Students</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p><strong>Tarek Bin Yameen</strong>, a second-year student at&nbsp;吃瓜爆料鈥檚 Faculty of Medicine, has helped organize clinics to&nbsp;provide&nbsp;free eye exams for more than 600 Syrian refugees across the GTA.</p> <p>Last weekend, dozens of 吃瓜爆料 medical students and faculty came to Kensington Eye Institute to provide free eye exams for Syrian refugees. Altogether, they saw 113 patients and identified many&nbsp;for followups&nbsp;鈥�&nbsp;28 for vision correction and 12 for referral to a specialist.</p> <p>About half the families who attended arrived in Canada in the last few weeks, and many have&nbsp;never received eye care.&nbsp;</p> <p>鈥淭here is a really high need in this population,鈥� said Bin Yameen, whose family spent time in a refugee camp in Yemen before coming to Canada in 2001. 鈥淲e鈥檝e seen rates of visual impairment or disease of almost 35 per cent in our clinics, compared to less than 10 per cent in the general Canadian population.鈥�</p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__4531 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" src="/sites/default/files/Myrna%20Lichter%2C%20Sherif%20El-Defrawy%2C%20Tarek%20Bin%20Yameen.jpg" style="width: 750px; height: 498px; margin: 10px;" typeof="foaf:Image"><br> <em>Dr. Myrna Lichter, Professor <strong>Sherif El-Defrawy</strong>, chair of ophthalmology and vision sciences, and Tarek Bin Yameen (photo courtesy of Kensington Eye Institute)</em></p> <h3><a href="http://magazine.utoronto.ca/blogs/u-of-t-student-tarek-bin-yameen-helps-arrange-free-eye-exams-for-syrian-refugees/">Read more about Bin Yameen at <em>吃瓜爆料 Magazine</em></a></h3> <p>The clinics are the brainchild of Bin Yameen, who is working with refugee assistance organization Mes Amis and Dr. <strong>Myrna Lichter</strong>, a lecturer in 吃瓜爆料鈥檚 department of ophthalmology and vision sciences.&nbsp;Lichter and Mes Amis now run the project with a volunteer team that includes dozens of optometrists, ophthalmologists and almost 80 吃瓜爆料 medical students, who work as interviewers or translators.&nbsp;</p> <p>The team organizes one-day clinics at eye care centres and mosques, and charters buses to transport the refugees from their homes. They arrange followup appointments or provide prescription glasses on-the-spot.</p> <p>Bin Yameen and Lichter hope to present and publish research based on the clinics over the next year or two, which they believe will be the first scientific investigation on the health of a refugee population in Canada. They will continue to partner with Mes Amis to host more clinics until the summer. And with new funding in the works, they plan a scale-up to include refugees from other countries over the next year, in the GTA and Kitchener area.</p> <h3><a href="http://medicine.utoronto.ca/news/first-downtown-eye-clinic-syrian-refugees-offers-free-screening">Read more of the story</a></h3> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__4532 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" src="/sites/default/files/Allan%20Slomovic%20and%20Malak%20family%20member.jpg" style="width: 750px; height: 498px; margin: 10px;" typeof="foaf:Image"><br> Dr. <strong>Allan Slomovic</strong>, a professor of ophthalmology and vision sciences,&nbsp;and a member of the Malak family (photo courtesy of Kensington Eye Institute)</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Fri, 05 May 2017 18:54:46 +0000 ullahnor 107248 at