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  • Bennett keeps eyes on Armenia

    Belmont Citizen-Herald, MA
    April 28 2005


    Bennett keeps eyes on Armenia

    By Joanne Hartunian/ Guest Columnist
    Thursday, April 28, 2005

    Eleven years ago, I consulted with Dr. Linda Bennett concerning a
    young girl in the Cambridge Yerevan Sister City Association youth
    exchange program from Yerevan, Armenia who needed eyeglasses. Dr.
    Bennett said she'd do what she could. She's been doing what she could
    since then, and 100 times over.

    Over the years she saw exchange educators and students with
    various stages of vision problems, including one boy who had
    malnutrition blindness. As she treated the Belmont High School
    visitors in her Cushing Square office, Dr. Bennett would tell them,
    "Don't forget to get come and get your eyes checked again." The
    participants would try to explain that they were on a U.S. Department
    of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs funded youth
    exchange program and that it would be impossible to come to American
    again. Dr. Bennett always told the students and teachers, "You never
    know when I'll see you again!"

    Belmont High School is partnered with School #65 in Shengavit
    region of Yerevan, Armenia. Year after year, as educators and
    students arrived on the doorstep of Belmont High School, Dr. Bennett
    and her office staff cleared the office to accommodate the groups
    that the Cambridge Yerevan Sister City Association brought to the
    Boston area. Dr. Bennett's office visit became a living legend where
    she showed the students a children's video, treated them to lunch,
    and let them play games for an afternoon, in addition to giving eye
    exams and, where necessary, eyeglasses. In one instance, an educator
    needed specialized eye surgery, which Dr. Bennett arranged.

    Year after year, Dr. Bennett would call me and inquire, "When
    are the Armenian students and teachers coming to Belmont High School
    this year?"

    Armenian students and educators are unable to come to the United
    States with the Secondary School Partnership Program to Promote Civil
    Society any longer, due to State Department budget cuts. So she
    decided if the children couldn't come to her, she would go to them.

    Dr. Bennett spoke at an annual optometric convention last April and
    told them about the children in Armenia. Her efforts mobilized an
    18-person mission team through Volunteer Optometric Services to
    Humanity (www.vosh.org), which went to Armenia this month to conduct
    six all-day school clinics.

    Local optometrists who accompanied Dr. Bennett on the trip were
    Dr. Joseph D'Amico, Worcester, team leader; Dr. Christine Russian,
    Lahey Clinic; Dr. James Fantazian, Billerica; Dr. Karen Koumjian,
    Watertown; and Dr. Taline Farra, New England College of Optometry.
    Kimberly Balfour of Belmont Day School, a registered nurse, ran a
    blood pressure clinic on site, because high blood pressure may be
    indicative of eye care issues.



    We were assisted by logistics coordinator Peggy Hovanessian,
    Lexington; and site coordinator Anna Karakhanyan of Armenia. AMARAS
    Arts Alliance of Watertown is the United States sponsoring
    organization and Yerevan Cambridge Sister City Association is the
    Republic of Armenia's inviting organization.

    The team was registered with the Republic of Armenia's
    Humanitarian Commission and Ministry of Health and the 18
    participants took eye equipment, eyeglasses, candy, children's
    clothing, and school supplies with them, weighing close to one ton.

    While in Armenia they were hosted in a government guest house
    and had dinner in the homes of the many people Dr. Bennett has
    treated.

    Belmont High School, the Armenian Memorial Church, Watertown;
    Armenian Church of the Holy Translators; Framingham; Knights and
    Daughters of Vartan, New England; United Armenian Calvary
    Congregational Church, Troy, N.Y.; St. Vartanantz Church, Chelmsford;
    Mt. Holyoke College Chaplains Office; General Optical, Cambridge; and
    Armenian Library and Museum of America, Watertown, contributed toward
    the project's eyeglass goals. Rev. Joanne Hartunian is program
    manager for the Cambridge-Yerevan Sister City Association, and
    project manager for the Armenian vision clinics.
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