When 2-year-old Zion saw Penn students encouraging a little girl to let them check her eyes with a large camera, he removed his thumb from his mouth and cried, "I want a turn."
Zion and 20 students from his day care class at the West Philadelphia Community Center, located at 36th Street and Haverford Avenue, participated in vision screenings last Thursday morning as part of Focus First, a Penn community service initiative.
Six Penn students operated a camera that tests for vision problems and eased the anxiety of the 2- and 3-year-olds in the process.
With a little girl in her lap, College sophomore Liore Klein quelled the children's nerves by explaining the process.
"We're going to take a picture of your eyes," she said. "The camera we're going to use really likes the dark, so don't be afraid."
Klein said she became involved in the project because she understands what it would be like to not be able to see.
"I've had glasses since I was 5, and I know how difficult it would be for me, so it was important for me to get involved in helping these other children."
The idea stemmed from the original Focus First program in Alabama, which Penn students experienced on an Alliance and Understanding alternative spring break trip to the South to learn about black and Jewish relations during the Civil Rights Movement.
"Nine million children in the [United States] don't have health insurance," said College senior and Hillel President Deena Greenberg, who went on the AU trip last year. "Students, through this awareness, can help work to solve that."
Vision screenings do not start for most uninsured children until elementary school, leaving those with vision problems undiagnosed until age 5 or 6, she said.
Greenberg brought the idea to the Hillel Community Service Board. Once she saw the initial excitement, she said, she knew others would want to get involved.
"We did a lot of work this summer, making connections with the University, the Netter Center and [Children's Hospital of Philadelphia], contacting nursery schools and getting the logistics together so we could have it up and running by the fall," she explained.
Focus First kicked off this fall, holding 10 screenings across Philadelphia and testing about 400 kids. Greenberg noted that 10 to 15 percent of the children screened failed their eye exams.
She explained that the Eagles Eye Mobile, a community service branch of the Philadelphia Eagles, provided these children with follow-up care. At the beginning of this spring semester, three students received their first pair of glasses.
"People see the problems that go on in West Philadelphia," she said. "This is a very tangible solution to address these problems."
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