COVID-19 Sustainability Efforts: Sight & Sketches

Our team provided 200 local underserved families with COVID-19 Care Kits for Anaheim’s Adopt-a-Family event.  These kits included personal hygiene supplies for the household, feminine hygiene, household disinfecting products, reusable face masks for both adults & children, sanitizers, reusable grocery tote bags, bilingual resources for COVID safety, mental health, and low/no cost local clinics.  We care thankful for the opportunity to serve the community.

Ongoing Sustainability Efforts: Sight

Our team works monthly with local clinics in under-served communities to provide vision exams, prescription glasses, patient care, and education.  We regularly host educational workshops about the importance of visual health.

Dr. Yamam Almouradi provides free exams to under-served patients on a case-by-case basis year-round at Brea Optometry and Norwalk Family Optometry.  Contact us for a voucher today!

Ongoing Sustainability Efforts: Sketches

Our BrickWall Academy is always looking to expand and serve various populations of all ages in Orange County.  If your organization or project is looking to host art classes (beginning, intermediate, and advanced level drawing & painting classes for children and adults) contact us today!

Project Istanbul: 2019 | Sight

We traveled to Istanbul, Turkey in March to provide Syrian refugee children and adults with no-cost prescription and reading glasses, as well as patient education regarding ocular health and vision care. Although the patients seen obtained the necessary glasses to restore their sight, sustainability is key to ensure the continuity of this project.  We collaborated with a local clinic to provide the optometrist there with 1,300 prescription distance and reading glasses to be given out for free throughout the year to underserved patients seen at the clinic.

Project Malaysia: 2019 | Sight

Our co-founder traveled to give an Optometry seminar at an international university in Malaysia in September.  University undergraduate, graduate, & post-bachelor medical students, along with Optometrists from around the country, attended the interactive seminar and left with new knowledge that they can now utilize in their daily practice and educate fellow peers and patients.

Project Malaysia: 2018 | Sight

Our co-founder traveled to give an Optometry seminar at an international university in Malaysia at the beginning of December.  Roughly 160 university undergraduate and graduate students, post-bachelor medical students, and local Optometrists attended the seminar and left with new knowledge that they can now utilize in their daily practice and educate fellow peers and patients.

Project Turkey: 2017 | Sight

Our co-founder traveled to Istanbul in November for a ‘Train the Trainers’ interactive seminar.  K-12 school teachers & administrative staff attended our event and learned how to detect visual issues in their students both in the classroom and on the playground. Then, as a preventative and sustainable measure, our co-founder served as a liaison between the school and a local free medical clinic to establish a relationship between the two institutions to ensure that these 1,000 students have the opportunity to be referred by the school for free vision exams.

Project El Cajon: 2017 | Sight

Attendees were able to choose from a collection of frames to be sent to a lab.  Once the glasses are ready, they will be sent to the case managers for distribution.  62 pairs of glasses were dispensed as well as patient education and tips regarding ocular health for continuity of care.

Project El Cajon: 2017 | Sketches

Upon their departure from our event, attendees were given relaxation art packets with a bilingual instruction page in English and Arabic.  Children, teenagers and adults each had different packets with varying difficulties according to age group.

We have been showcasing the collaborative artworks created during the event in different Orange County venues in order to educate non-Syrians about the country’s natural beauty and history in an effort to combat media stereotypes.

Istanbul Project: 2016 | Sight

Although the patients seen obtained the necessary glasses to restore their sight, sustainability is key to make this project successful.  Upon our return, we analyzed the patient data and developed a Power Point presentation that was later presented to the teachers and staff of these schools to emphasize the importance of routine eye exams, as well as provide them with an interactive workshop on how to detect the signs and symptoms of ocular issues in the classroom and playground.  By doing this, we increase awareness and allow the teachers and staff to quickly detect new and existing students that need vision attention and direct them to the proper clinics so that a simple vision issue won’t prevent them from excelling in their new school and adjusting to the new environment they find themselves in.  

Education is one of the key solutions to aiding the Syrian refugee situation, and we would like to continue our efforts in providing the tools for these kids’ success.

In November, our Optometrist revisited the same schools the team examined earlier this year in Istanbul and conducted hands-on workshops and presentations to 40 K-12 teachers.  The workshops served as a training for trainers in order to increase awareness regarding ocular health, highlight the importance of vision exams, as well as provide teachers and school staff with the tools for early detection of vision issues.  The training information and presentation were forwarded to the remaining 58 Syrian refugee schools in Istanbul in order to raise awareness regarding ocular health and preventative medicine.  This allows the remaining teachers in the city to detect vision problems in their students in both the classroom and the playground.  The presentations detailed analyzed statistics regarding the screenings and exams conducted last April.  The 40 teachers who attended the forum are now able to facilitate workshops and train others in the importance of ocular health.

For continuity of care, our Optometrist served as a liaison between these schools and a local community clinic, successfully establishing a no-cost referral system between the clinic and the two K-12 schools to allow the students and faculty to be seen.

Istanbul Project: 2016 | Sketches

Some of the solidarity drawings and cards were given to the faculty and children of the schools while the remainder were used to create a permanent gallery on the walls of the interior playgrounds of the refugee schools in Istanbul during our visit.  This way the children can have a constant reminder that the world has not forgotten them.

In an effort to engage the international community through the arts, our team organized multiple gallery exhibitions to raise awareness of the Syrian Crisis.  These galleries act as interactive awareness campaigns using drawings, paintings and installations, as well as documents the Istanbul Medical and Humanitarian Relief trip.