Works shares life-changing journey south

A month-long trip to Paraguay and Brazil was a life-changing experience, Abby Works told Iola Rotarians Thursday.
Works, a student at Kansas State University majoring in food science and pre-pharmacy, is the daughter of Iolans Fred and Judy Works.
Her journey to South America was made possible through a $5,000 Chapman Scholarship, established by Mark Chapman, a K-State alum, for summer study by KSU students in a major field.
With her interest in food and pharmacy, Works said her career goal was “to figure out how I can somehow marry these two interests to provide better health care to the medically underserved  through the use of food products to treat chronic health conditions.”
In her scholarships application, Works proposed she participate in a Volunteer Optometric Services to Humanity (VOSH) clinic in Paraguay, “to see how a non-government organization delivers health care service to an underserved country.”
The second part of her project, Works said, “has been to follow up and participate with (Iolan) Georgia Masterson in her Circles Out of Poverty program in Allen County,” which deals with poverty as a major factor in unhealthy lifestyle choices and limits health care access.
At the conclusion of her research, here and abroad, Works will write a series of paper about how it may have influenced or changed her perspective regarding classroom material at K-State.
Works said she learned several things from experiences in South America, including:
— Working in a VOSH clinic where she found regardless of the amount of service provided others, it will always be outweighed by benefits and rewards personally gained;
— That Rotary International’s reach and impact are far greater than she imagined.
— Revelations of what it is like to be a hosted guest in a foreign country.

WORKS CHOSE the VOSH clinic because she was familiar with Iola Rotary’s Vision Quest project, from what Iolans Ellis Potter, Bob Hawk and others had done in South America and elsewhere to help those with poor eyesight.
Her assignment was at a clinic in a rural area of Paraguay accessible only by dirt roads. The clinic was established by a Peace Corps volunteer in 1999, and still is operated by his family. She joined a staff of two doctors from Minnesota and optometry students from California and Canada.
Patients were examined, for corrective needs and eye disease, and then fitted with glasses, most of which were donated by Disney World from those people had lost in the huge amusement park. She also took one of Hawk’s glasses-making kits.
“The big impression that hits you in working in a clinic like this is the impact this service has on people’s lives,” Works said. “It often times is truly life changing for them.”
No other form of medicine has such an immediate effect, she continued, “as giving them their sight back.”
She found the experience of helping restore or improve patients’ sight was “not only life changing for them, but for me as well.”
A conclusion Works drew was that helping 2,800 people see better in 5 1/2 days was “not about trying to fix or change who they are, it is about just trying to extend a helping hand.”

WORKS FOUND Rotary International is more than service projects.
Being in land-locked Paraguay and next to Brazil, Works said she wanted to fulfill an item on her “bucket list” and visit the largest South American country.
About five years ago her family hosted a Rotary Group Study Exchange member from Brazil, which prompted Works to add Brazil and Rio de Janeiro to his list of “someday” destinations.
To complete that portion of her journey, Works had to overcome reluctant of her parents to permit her, a 20-year-old blond American girl, to travel alone to Brazil, even though she thought it “no bid deal,” having traveled abroad on her own before.
“The long reach of Rotary International came to my rescue,” she said.
With the help of Potter and her mother, things were worked out. She found a temporary home with Rotarians in Brazil, who went beyond being accommodating, Works said. Her travels into Brazil included seeing the man who had been in Iola as part of the study exchange program.
“Rotary is much more than service projects,” Works gushed. “It is really about building relationships.”