Volunteering overseas had been a dream for Wanaka optometrist Katie Bennetts for four or five years.

With several years experience under her belt, last year she headed to Africa, working with patients in both Ghana and Cameroon during a three-and-a-half week visit.

She took with her 600 pairs of reading glasses which were donated by people in the local community. Donations from Wanaka, Queenstown and Alexandra also funded 17 cataracts surgeries for patients in need.

"The people were so appreciative of the help we were providing,” Katie said.

Katie’s first two weeks were spent with Unite For Sight in Ghana, an organisation that works towards eliminating preventable blindness. The rest of her trip she was working with Volunteer Optometric Services to Humanity International in Cameroon.

With other volunteers and local eye care professionals, Katie screened for eye disease and provided glasses and medication to those in need.

In Ghana, the team was made up of two optometrists and two ophthalmic nurses and they would see up to 400 patients a day. In Cameroon the volumes were even higher, with a team of twelves optometrists seeing from 600-820 patients each day.

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As well as the huge volume of patents, Katie said it was difficult to adapt to the limited technology available. "I just had one handheld tool to use, which was challenging. You had to make a call based on what you could see. It really makes you appreciate the technology we have in New Zealand.”

Almost 80 percent of visual impairment worldwide is preventable, and 36 million people are left "needlessly” blind because they don’t have the eye care services they need. "For some of the patients I saw, it was hard knowing if they’d just happened to have been born in a different country they wouldn’t be in that situation.”

In Cameroon, Katie said, people would begin queueing as early as five in the morning.

Katie said it was difficult seeing the overwhelming need for more eye care services, but that by focusing on the individuals she was able to help, she could see the difference she was making.

Katie’s boss at Central Vision Optometry, Tui Russell, has volunteered in Vanuatu and her fiance Hunter, also an optometrist, has also volunteered in Africa.

Katie hopes to volunteer again in the future, in Asia or the Pacific.

PHOTO: Supplied