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 (), 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.