CHAPTER 5
Tzu Chi USA Mobile Clinics
Las Vegas, Nevada
Written by Andrey Cheng and Ida Eva Zielinska
Published #72 | Spring 2024 Issue
To the sound of cheers, Tzu Chi USA Las Vegas Service Center Director Tsuilin Valenzuela holds a symbolic key at the May 21, 2023, grand opening ceremony for its brand new Vision Mobile Clinic. Photo/Peter Simmons
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“Our dream came true!” Tsuilin Valenzuela, Director of the Tzu Chi USA Las Vegas Service Center, announced joyfully at the grand opening ceremony on May 21, 2023, for its new Tzu Chi Vision Mobile Clinic, the 11th to join Tzu Chi USA’s fleet. Dr. Karen Hsueh, the first optometrist working in the mobile clinic, declared, “I think it can change lives.” Dr. Esther Tan, the second mobile clinic doctor, was equally excited. Touring inside the vehicle, she remarked that it was “practical and upscale,” providing patients with a comfortable, air-conditioned environment, a bonus given the extreme heat in Las Vegas.
Given that the Vision Mobile Clinic didn’t come at a low cost, Valenzuela said, “We must not let the great people who donated to purchase it down!” The team already had plans for outreach, beginning in elementary schools. “We’ll work with the school district to help students in Las Vegas,” stated Steven Voon, Executive Vice President of the Buddhist Tzu Chi Medical Foundation. During the grand opening, everyone also reflected on the journey of bringing the Vision Mobile Clinic to Las Vegas.
Dreams Gradually Come True
“Even though Las Vegas has a lot of luxury hotels and casinos and seems very rich, we still have a population who needs help,” Tsuilin Valenzuela points out. The free medical outreach mission here started in 2015, with dental care serving uninsured, disadvantaged, and unhoused individuals. Then, in March 2018, when Tzu Chi Las Vegas volunteers attended the TIMA (Tzu Chi International Medical Association) USA Convention in Fresno, California, a yearning to launch vision care back home arose.
“We introduced our protocol, the vision program,” Steven Voon recalls. He was instrumental in establishing Tzu Chi’s mobile vision care in the United States, beginning in Fresno. However, Valenzuela remembers that what touched her most was when a care recipient spoke about how, after getting prescription glasses, her grades climbed from Fs to As. “That was powerful. Imagine: A pair of glasses can change a kid’s life. So this is really the main reason we wanted to start this project.”
The fundraising ball started rolling later that year, in October when the medical team from Tzu Chi USA National Headquarters in San Dimas came to Las Vegas for a Buddhist Tzu Chi Medical Foundation meeting. Learning that the Las Vegas Service Center had set its heart on conducting free vision care clinics, Dr. Richard Chang, a dentist from Headquarters, committed to donating $10,000. Facilitated by Kailun Chang, a Tzu Chi Las Vegas volunteer who motivated well-intentioned people and volunteers to donate, the Las Vegas medical team could afford to purchase portable optometry equipment, which enabled them to follow the footsteps of the dental care team and provide patients with free vision care services at the same time.
While fundraising continued, the TIMA Las Vegas chapter and Las Vegas Service Center volunteers launched their first free vision care clinic on September 29, 2019. It took place at a Salvation Army facility, and they invited Dr. Karen Hsueh and her clinic team to be there to provide vision care services.
John (a pseudonym) was lucky to be the first vision care patient in the history of Tzu Chi’s free clinic services in Las Vegas. He was thrilled when he learned he would receive his free prescription glasses in three days, exclaiming, “Tzu Chi shows me hope!” He also told the volunteers that many children of unhoused families urgently needed vision care services because their school report cards had poor grades. Some people experiencing homelessness didn’t even know that their children’s low marks were due to vision problems. Even if they did know, there was nothing they could do. After all, prescription eyeglasses that could cost over a hundred dollars were a luxury instead of a necessity for these families.
John’s words reminded the volunteers anew of why they had embarked on this journey of making their dream of offering mobile vision care in Las Vegas a reality. Even with the subsequent outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Tzu Chi Las Vegas volunteers held fast to their cause, eagerly awaiting when they could finally drive their own Vision Mobile Clinic to serve those in need in underprivileged school districts. And such opportunities will appear for those who are prepared.
The Las Vegas Service Center launched vision care volunteer training in 2020 to teach the volunteers how to skillfully and accurately operate all the optometry equipment during free vision care clinics. The local training was conducted by the Fresno mobile clinic team several times, and another team of volunteers was sent to Fresno to receive further training and understand the operation of a Vision Mobile Clinic, even when there was no sign that the purchase of one could happen.
Then, a significant contribution from Taiwan manifested. Dr. Pengfei Chen and his wife had donated to Tzu Chi USA toward its acquisition of a second mobile clinic in the early years, as they were interested in bringing medical care to disadvantaged populations in remote or underserved areas in the United States. In 2021, when Dr. William Keh, then-CEO of the Buddhist Tzu Chi Medical Foundation (BTCMF), introduced the plan to expand the mobile clinic fleet to Dr. Chen’s family, they donated US $500,000. With an additional $200,000 donated by the BTCMF, purchasing another Vision Mobile Clinic for Tzu Chi USA became possible.
In early January 2022, when the BTCMF formally notified the Las Vegas Service Center that it would have a Vision Mobile Clinic, Tsuilin Valenzuela, the Service Center’s Director, and the volunteers in Las Vegas felt immense joy. “We were blown away! Stunned!” Valenzuela remembers. “We’re a small office, a mere service center. We didn’t expect the Medical Foundation to give it to us!”
Through the COVID-19 pandemic and after, the months marched by while the Las Vegas Service Center eagerly awaited the arrival of its very own Vision Mobile Clinic. Finally, 2023 rolled around, bringing much cause for celebration.
2023: A Stellar Year
In February 2023, Tzu Chi Las Vegas celebrated its 20th anniversary, but that would not be the only milestone during this outstanding year. In May, the prized Tzu Chi Vision Mobile Clinic arrived in the city, fulfilling a wish cast five years earlier in 2018. Only two months later, the Tzu Chi medical team in Las Vegas started the Vision Mobile Clinic’s outreach services.
The Vision Mobile Clinic’s first service on July 23, 2023, its inaugural day, was organized in collaboration with UNIFY, a Clark County School District program for undocumented and immigrant families. “Most of the families that we work with have never had a vision exam,” Astrid Silva, Director of the UNIFY program, shared. “So, the fact that they’re getting glasses on the spot is incredible for these families.”
The care recipients were new immigrants, migrants, and political asylum seekers, both children and their parents. For newcomer families who may not have mastered English yet, uncorrected vision is just an additional barrier, especially for students’ performance in school. “People can sometimes say, ‘Oh, it’s because they don’t understand the language,’ when in reality, it may be that the child can’t see the board,” Silva said.
Steven Voon concurred, “Many children don’t understand that blurry vision is not okay. By providing glasses, they can improve their reading level, homework, and school grades.” Moreover, “Sometimes because the kids can’t see, they get frustrated, or they don’t want to go to school, and then that can lead to bigger issues,” Silva cautioned, so correcting vision with prescription glasses has even broader benefits.
José López, his wife Jenny, and two daughters are from Columbia, South America, and had only been in the United States for four months, living in Las Vegas. “My wife and my daughters need glasses more than anything at this moment,” López shared, “especially my daughters, Maily and Emily because they’re attending school. My wife also is very nearsighted.”
“Buying glasses is costly, and we don’t have enough money,” López divulged, as his sole income as a gardener kept the family afloat. Thankfully, their needs were met on that special day, as his wife and daughters all got prescription glasses. Tsuilin Valenzuela smiled as she recounted, “They were so happy, and the mother told me that now she can walk more safely and learn English in a class. For the children, when they see well, they learn well. I’m sure this family will have a bright future.”
“Wow! I see so much better!” Jenny López exclaimed, “To be able to see is marvelous!” Reflecting on his family having come into contact with Tzu Chi, José López declared, “Meeting them is a great blessing; we are truly very grateful.” As all the families who received care rejoiced, so did the Tzu Chi USA Las Vegas Service Center team, looking forward to many years of making a difference in people’s lives, one family or child at a time.
