THOUSANDS OF CHILDREN BENEFITED FROM ‘SEEING IS BELIEVING’ PROJECT IN NIGERIA – AYENI
The Coordinator who is also the implementing partner of Seeing is Believing (SiB) programs in Osun State added that the initiative has touched lives of many of the less privileged living with eye problem, just as he pointed out that. Osun State alone,recorded 207,000 children who were screened and 1,750 spectacles were distributed freely, while 100 surgeries were carried out for children that has eye problem.
“Thousands of children have benefited from this project and their lives have been touched, our target is to delivered 300,000 children to be screened, over 200,000 children have been screened in Osun State so far and this has assisted them a lot.”
“Our major problem is the acceptance of the project at the beginning by the parents and the bureaucratic nature of the government to make them accept the program and also the sustainability of the program because we are thinking about what will happen after the program close out. Irregular eye checkup is one of the major cause of blindness in children, and if a project of this magnitude is not sustained, then, we are just wasting our time.”
Penpushing further reports that, she however appealed to parents to always take their children to the nearest hospitals for regular eye checkup in order to avert unforeseen eye problem of their children in future.
The Chief Executive Officer of Eleta Eye Institute, Dr. Gboyega Ajani in his remarks noted that prevention is the best way to solve eye problem, adding that it starts from the time a mother get pregnant.
“Pregnant mothers must be in a good state of health, they must have good nourishment and they must visit hospitals/maternity care and at birth they should be assisted by either midwife or professionals and ensure that the children do not have maternity problem.”
“They should take their children for eye checkup between 4-6 weeks of birth and thereafter every year for the first 5 years so that if a child has problem, the problem can be solve immediately.”
“Eye treatment is not cheap if it is allowed to stay for long, prevention of eye problem is very cheap because it requires simple things, it is easy to sustained this program if relevant stakeholder can stick into it with the use of modern technology.”
Penpushing also reports that while speaking on behalf of the Commissioner of Health in Ogun State, Dr. Folashade Fashina said that Ogun State has benefited a lot in the program explaining that some of their specialists have been trained on child health related issue, adding that the State shall continue to collaborate and partner with the project
.Seeing is Believing program is a three years Comprehensive Child Eye Health in Nigeria that seeks to make child eye health services available and accessible through promotion, prevention, medical care and rehabilitation/inclusive education targeted at vulnerable children
‘It is hoped that at the end of 2020, SiB would have reached over 1.5 million children aged 0-14 and has contributed to the reduction of avoidable blindness and visual impairment in Nigeria’
‘Globally, there are an estimate of 36 million blind people and 217 million suffering from moderate or severe visual impairment, and visual impairments diminishes and individuals quality of life negatively impacts economic growth, often prevent individual from attending schools or entering the work force
