A GNA feature by Philip Tengzu
Wa, (UW/R), May 22, GNA- Mr Sanutey Dikpetey, a teacher, never imagined that the phone camera could one day become a lens to aid him in reading from the projector screen when he is a bit distant from the screen.
Testimonies
For him to follow the presentation, he took pictures of the presentations with his mobile phone to read from the phone screen. “Yes, that was how bad it was,” he said.
As human, Mr Dikpetey told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that he rejected the condition from the onset. He said it was the brightness or darkness of the environment that was causing his inability to read from the projector screen.
According to him, he would always ask the colleagues: “Can you read what is projected on the screen?” But he became uncomfortable when they responded in the affirmative.
“I feared I was losing is sight and might end up wearing glasses, but now I feel comfortable wearing glasses to aid me in my work,” the teacher in his early 30s said.
Just like Mr Dikpetey, Prudence Mwinikpeong does not experience any difficulty with her sight during a normal day’s work, household chores. She felt everything was all right with her.
However, in the classroom, Prudence would go through a grave ordeal to participate in teaching and learning.
As a second-year student of Eremon Senior High Technical School, Prudence went through difficulties reading from the marker board and had to solicit the assistance of her colleagues in class to do so.
That prompted her to think that there was something wrong with her eyesight, but she did not know the means to find a remedy to her problem.
“We are using a marker board in the school so, when the teacher writes on it, I am not able to see, and if I strain my eyes to read from it then they will be tearing.
“Because of that when we are copying notes I must wait and later collect a colleague’s book to copy the notes.
When we are doing exercise, I go to sit in front and if I am still not able to see then I let a colleague read the question for me,” she explained.
Prudence’s ordeal continued until she was diagnosed with refractive error and provided with a reading glass.
This problem is not peculiar to Prudence, many people are “living behind the glasses.” Many others, especially school children, are also going through similar or even severe eye problems but do not know the route to finding a solution to their problems.
Statistics
According to the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB), data from the Ghana Blindness and Visual Impairment Study, 2015 indicates that there are about 300,000 Ghanaians who are living with blindness and about 332,000 who suffer from severe visual impairment.
The data added that the most common causes of blindness are cataracts, which contributed about 54.5 per cent; Glaucoma, 19.4 per cent; and Posterior Segment Disease including Diabetic Retinopathy, 12.9 per cent and corneal-related causes contributing 11.2 per cent.
It is a palpable truth that millions of individuals experience eye problems annually with some eye issues resulting in permanent vision loss or blindness, while others can be corrected with contact lenses or glasses.
A delicate sense organ
The human eye is one of the sense organs gifted to man by nature or God.
Of the five human sense organs – the Eyes for sight or Ophthalmoception, the Ears for hearing or audioception, the Tongue for taste or Gustaoception, the Nose for smell or Olfalcoception and Skin for touch or Tactioception – the eye and the ear could be considered as the most delicate organs.
Wearing eyeglasses, aside from adding to one’s beauty bequeathed to him or her by nature, is also a means of protecting one’s vision.
It is the only artificial means of restoring one’s gift of nature, the gift of seeing well and interacting with nature.
Importance of the eye
The eye could be described as the gateway of a man’s soul to the world. It enables a person to behold the beauty of nature, God’s handy works.
Once lost, the eye cannot be replaced. That denies a person the privilege to witness the impeccable beauty of nature.
Man’s interaction with nature becomes mental imaginational through the remaining four sense organs once his or her sight is lost.
For this reason, one could ascribe the human eye as a critical organ of the human body that needed meticulous in caring for it.
Importance of eye in education
Children with eye problems go through challenges to actively partake in academic activities. Some of such children, no matter how academically good they might be, tend to be poor academically.
Some are often scolded by teachers ignorantly for acting strangely in class including moving from one location to the other, which the teacher might consider inappropriate.
Unfortunately, many children in pre-tertiary institutions are suffering from diverse eye conditions ignorantly or are unable to access treatment due to financial challenges.
In the Sissala East Municipality for instance, Mr Lewil Charles, the Municipal Director of Education, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview in Tumu that their checks revealed that sight problems were a major challenge for children in Basic Schools in the Municipality.
“If the children cannot see well, it affects their ability to grasp the lessons, either they have to strain the eyes or they have to draw close to the board and all that is a problem,” Mr Lewil explained.
Caring for the eye
Dr. Zakarea Al-Hassan Balure, an Optometrist, has a popular saying: “The eye has no spare parts, once it is lost, it is gone, and you cannot replace it.” This is to emphasise the importance one should attach to his or her eye care.
He encouraged the members of the public to take their eye care seriously by going for regular checkups, at least once a year.
Speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview in Wa, Dr. Balure admonished: “Don’t wait until you have an eye problem and when your vision is blurring before you come to check. Do it regularly.”
He said negligence on the side of people in caring for their eyes and seeking prompt medical attention, when necessary, could result in a “needless blind community.”
“I am saying needless because there are solutions to most of the eye problems that people have, but the problem is that they are reluctant to go to the clinic for attention.
We must change our attitudes and prioritise our eye care,” said the Optometrist, who is also the Manager of Bliss Eye Care, a private eye clinic in Wa.
Vision for children
Considering the importance of good eyesight for children’s effective participation in academic activities, eye care and treatment for children must be seen as a priority for parents and guardians.
For Dr. Balure, regular eye screening and proper treatment for children was non-negotiable to avoid preventable sight loss for children.
Mr Martin Gangmur, the In-Charge of the Eye Unit of St. Theresa’s Hospital in Nandom, encouraged pregnant women to take their antenatal care seriously to help ensure the healthy development of their unborn children including their sight.
He said the failure of some women to attend antenatal care led to them transferring some infections to their unborn children, which could affect the child’s vision in his or her later life.
Mr Gangmur said this in relation to little Lateef Anfaana, about seven years from Hamile in the Lambussie District who had congenital cataract – a condition he developed from birth.
That condition of little Lateef nearly caused him to go blind, but for the timely intervention he had from the clinic.
Traditional medication
One enemy of proper eye care, especially in rural communities, was seeking traditional treatment for eye problems.
While traditional medications for eye problems come in different forms such as herbs, tying ropes around the neck of a person, especially a child with an eye condition was more celebrated among some rural folks.
Many children were spotted in some communities during eye screening exercises with ropes around their necks to treat their eye conditions.
Some children were seen at Loggu and Bulenga communities, both in the Wa East District and Boli community in the Wa Municipality going through different traditional medications for their eyes.
At the Boli community, two children who came for screening virtually lost their sight, which Dr. Balure said could have been averted if the parents had sought early medical attention for them.
The father of one of the children said he spent a lot of money to seek different traditional medications for the son who eventually lost one of his eyesight.
Dr. Balure appealed to the public to access treatment for their eye conditions at the hospital instead of resorting to traditional medications.
He could not fathom why some people still relied on traditional medications for a remedy to their eye problems rather than health facilities, which have the technology to offer proper treatment of those conditions.
“We are still appealing that once we have advanced to this level they (the public) should always give us (the health facilities) the first offer else mostly when they get to the clinic after they have done all those things (traditional medications) it is difficult to salvage the situation that arises from that”, Dr. Balure explained.
The BS4Ks project
Though philanthropists around the world have distinct kinds and motives for gifting the needy in society, for Bliss Eye Care, the gift of sight is considered the most precious gift that a person could ever receive.
The love of children remained an integral part of the benevolence activities of Bliss Eye Care as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
Through the Blissful Sight for Kids (BS4Ks), thousands of less privileged children in rural and peri-urban communities have received free eye screening, treatment, and eyeglasses.
Bliss Eye Care has been implementing the BS4Ks project for close to a decade now to help restore the eyesight of less privileged school children to enable them to participate actively in academic activities.
Currently, the BS4Ks project is being implemented in partnership with GhanaVision, a philanthropic organisation based in Switzerland.
The project had saved many school children from rough hands of one eye condition or the other.
One of such children was Prudence Mwinikpeong who restored her vision through the free eyeglasses she had through the project.
One other beneficiary was little Lateef Anfaana, about seven years from Hamile in the Lambussie District, who had a congenital cataract – a condition he developed from birth.
He went through surgery at St. Theresa’s Hospital in Nandom to remove the cataract, but still could not see well and needed eyeglasses for correction.
Madam Memuna Anfaana, the mother of Lateef, said she was worried about the condition of her child but could not raise the GH¢1,500.00 needed to acquire the eyeglasses for him.
She took advantage of the BS4Ks programme, traveled from Hamile to Lawra for the BS4Ks free eye screening to help save her son’s sight.
Thousands of school children in the Upper West Region and beyond can now participate actively in academic activities courtesy of the BS4Ks project.
Stigma against eye conditions
Aside from ignorance and financial challenges that hindered people, especially children from accessing proper eye treatment and care, the fear of stigma from peers also discouraged them from wearing eyeglasses on medical conditions.
However, Dr. Balure encouraged people to consider having good eyesight through every medically appropriate means such as wearing eyeglasses or surgery paramount.
Recommendations
Recognising the importance of good eyesight in the effective education of the child and his or her meaningful participation in social activities, there is the need to intensify the early detection and treatment of children with eye problems.
Dr. Balure reiterated the importance of regular eye screenings saying, “Occasionally visit the facility to have your eyes checked.”
The government and its development partners need to support eye care organisations and individuals who engage in free eye screening services for children to scale up their interventions to reach more children in the country.
Imperatively, teachers should also constantly observe children in the class to identify and assist those who suffer from one eye condition or the other ignorantly.
Parents ought to take eye care of their children seriously and to seek proper treatment for them when necessary.
“Living behind the glasses” should not be seen as a “curse to blindness” but as a “new way of life”, not only to enhance one’s vision, but also protect the vision from permanent destruction. We must all be reminded of the sages that say, “A stitch in time saves nine” and work hard to protect the eye.
GNA