By Philip Tengzu
Danku, (UW/R), July 03, GNA – Mr Abudi Issahaku, the Wa Municipal School Health Education Programme (SHEP) Coordinator, has expressed concern about the indifferent attitude of some parents towards the health and well-being of their children, especially their eye care.
He said some schoolchildren in the municipality had been suffering from different eye conditions, which were affecting their quality of education, but their parents or guardians were not taking any steps to cure or manage those conditions.
Mr Issahaku raised the concern in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Danku, a community in the Wa Municipality during a free eye screening exercise for school children.
That was after Yaw George, a class two pupil of Jonga-Tabiase M/A Primary school in the Wa Municipality turned up for the screening and was diagnosed with Nystagmus (shaking eyeball).
Mr Issahaku indicated that he first encountered a child in that condition during a monitoring visit to the school.
“At the instance of entering the classroom, he was seen lying on the floor writing. When I looked at him, I saw that the eyeballs were shaking, and I realised there was a problem.
“I asked the teacher what the problem was. Then she said that, oh, she also came and met him in that situation,” he explained.
He lamented that even when teachers identified eye problems with the children and informed the parents, they were reluctant to send the children to the hospital, which was worrying.
He appealed to all parents and guardians to take the eyesight of their children seriously since it had a lot of negative consequences on the children including their education.
Mr Issahaku thanked Bliss Eye Care and GhanaVision for their continuous support to the education sector in the municipality through the free eye screening and treatment intervention, which was impacting positively on the education of the children.
Talking about Yaw George’s condition, Madam Sahadatu Moomin, his class teacher, said he could only see from the board when he lay on the floor in the class close to the board.
She said she had informed the parents about the child’s condition, but they refused to seek a solution for it leaving him to struggle to learn.
Meanwhile, Mr George Dari, the father of Yaw George, said he could not take the child to the hospital due to financial challenges.
He expressed gratitude to Bliss Eye Care and its partners for the intervention and said it would help improve his participation in class.
Dr. Zakarea Al-Hassan Balure, the Manager of Bliss Eye Care, encouraged parents and guardians to take eye care of their children seriously as poor eyesight negatively impacted every aspect of the child’s life.
Bliss Eye Care, a private eye clinic in Wa, organized the free eye screening and treatment services in partnership with GhanaVision and the Wa Municipal Education Directorate under the Blissful Sight for Kids (BS4Ks) project.
It formed part of its Cooperate Social Responsibility (CSR) and aimed to help provide good eyesight for school children in the Upper West Region and beyond.
A total of 646 children went through the screening, out of which 127 had normal eyes, 492 had pathological issues and needed medication, 12 of them had refractive errors and needed eyeglasses and 15 children had cataracts and glaucoma.
Those who needed medication or eyeglasses were offered at no cost to them or their parents while cases that could not be managed at the screening centre were referred to the health facility for further assessment and treatment.
GNA