3,000 VISUALLY IMPAIRED NIGERIAN CHILDREN BENEFITS FROM FREE EYE SURGERY

According to him, ‘Seeing is Believing Comprehensive Child Eye Health has giving 3,460 visually impaired Nigerian children free eye surgery, we had also assisted children with various sight challenges by provision of 27, 443 spectacles or low vision devices’.

Hear added, ‘Seeing is Believing is a three years comprehensive child eye health Initiative implemented in four clusters, with the cluster one comprised of Oyo, Osun and Ogun States, while cluster two is comprised of Federal Capital Territory Abuja, Nasarawa and Plateau State, while cluster three is for Kano State, Jigawa, and Katsina States, with cluster four which comprised of Akwa Ibom and Cross River States.

“In Nigeria, 84% of blindness was found to be due to avoidable causes cataract which is the commonest cause of blindness, two in 10,000 children in Nigeria are blind or have severe visual Impairment, and over 50% of children die within 1-2 years of becoming blind as blind conditions are also causes of child mortality, so, delayed in treatment in children can leads to irreversible impaired sight.”

The Coordinator pointed out that the negative impact of vision impaired for Nigerian Children include diminished quality of life, lack of access to education, and challenges in finding employment in future with negative effect of Nigeria economic growth, among others.

“This program is meant to promotes, prevent, cure, rehabilitate/educate components of child eye health which is being implemented by Brien Holden Vision Institute (BHVI) in partnership with the Standard Chartered Bank.”

Penpushing also reports that, he noted that the program has trained 2,388, health workers, at primary health centers, and also 163 eye care specialists have been trained, while over 1.5 million children have been screened for eye challenges in all the clusters areas.

“We have primary health centers in all local government areas we covered, with drugs free of charge for the children with eye challenges. We have secondary care units in each States we covered, like in Ibadan there is Eleta Eye Institute, and Ring Road Hospital Ibadan, where you can get both drugs and devices for children with eye challenges’.

He added, “we also have some health education Schools for the eye impaired children, like the one we have in Ibadan the Omonigbeheyin School for the Blinds and Handicap’.

The coordinator, however, called on the Media to provide coverage and news mentioning child eye health programmes to highlight the service available, stressing, “media should help us to produce documentaries highlighting issue of child eye health in Nigeria’

‘They should provide platform for live phone-in discussion program on child eye health, there should be air jingles on child eye health issues and the print media should provide columns designated for eye health awareness raising.”

In her address, The Chairperson of Oyo State Chapter of National Associationof Women  Journalists, (NAWOJ), Mrs. Jadesola Ajibola, noted that the media plays a significant role in the society especially in the development of every sector of the economy, urging them to always report anything that entails child eye health and child health related issues in their reportage.

“It is the role of the media to create awareness on various issues including children who are most vulnerable in the country, which is the reason for this building programme to create awareness for adequate healthcare delivery for children under the age of 18years.”

Penpushing also reports that, Ajibola, however said that journalists should be encourage for their reportage by giving annual recognition to journalists who write on child eye health care, supporting journalists with working tools, regular training and retraining of journalists on child eye health care, and readiness of experts to give adequate information to the media, among others.