Tangasie, (U/W), Jan. 25, GNA – Bliss Eye Care, a private eye care clinic based in Wa has provided free eye screening services to a total of 949 students at Tangasie and its surrounding communities.
Of the total number screened, 395 of them had infective conjunctivitis, 405 had allergic conjunctivitis, 15 had refractive errors, three had glaucoma, and one had cataract while the remaining 130 had normal eyes.
Speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at the end of the exercise, Dr Zakarea Al-hassan Balure, an Optometrist and Manager of Bliss Eye Care said the gesture was part of the implementation of the Blissful Sight for Kids (BS4Ks) Project, being funded by Ghana Vision in Switzerland.
He said throughout the project they had provided free eye screening and treatment services to some basic school children across the Upper West Region except the Lambussie District, which was delayed due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Dr Balure said this year, the screening would continue but under very strict COVID-19 protocols, adding that, they were equally using the opportunity to sensitize the people about the pandemic and what they needed to do in order to stay safe.
He said whereas some medicine were administered to those who needed it, others were referred to seek further treatment at the hospital whilst some would be given appropriate eye glasses at a later date to correct their eye defects.
The Manager of Bliss Eye Care commended Naa Edward Sie Sunwieh II, the Chief of Tangasie for not just inviting him and his team, but also organizing the students and being part of the screening process from beginning to the end.
Naa Sunwieh also thanked Bliss Eye Care for responding to his call to come and render the free eye screening services to school children in his community, adding that, good eye sight was important for a child’s education and the lack of it could truncate this.
Mr Francis Nang, a Nurse at the Tangasie Community-Based Health Planning Services (CHPS) compound said through the screening exercise, it was revealed that some of the children lacked good nutrition, which was affecting their sight.
“As a nurse, we need to take the issue of nutrition up by embarking on community nutrition sensitization programme in order to sensitize them on the importance of nutrition and some of the things they should be eating to gain nutrition”, he said.
Mr Dunkwa Sampson, a Teacher at Tangasie D/A Primary, said the kind of eye diseases identified by the screening shocked him, adding that they were dealing with some of the kids who actually had problems with their vision without them knowing.
“As a teacher when you know the sight problem of any of your kid, you will know how to handle him/her in class to aid his/her learning”, he said.
GNA