By Philip Tengzu
Wa, (UW/R), May 13, GNA – Mr Alexander Sefa, the National Director of the Department of Children (DoC), has urged the public to support and care for children with visual impairments to ensure their holistic development.
He observed that children with visual impairment and their parents or caretakers go through many challenges in society, including discrimination and stigma, which hinder their proper integration into society and development.
Mr Sefa was speaking at a sensitisation event at Dandafuro, a community in the Wa Municipality, organised by the Upper West Regional office of the Department of children in collaboration with the Wa Municipal Departments of Social Welfare and Community Development.
It formed part of the implementation of the Holistic Development of Visually Impaired Children (HODVIC) programme being implemented in six districts in Ghana.
The Visio International funded the HODVIC programme in partnership with the Presbyterian Health Services to, among other things, empower and facilitate the integration of children with visual impairment into society and educational institutions.
The sensitisation also featured eye screening for the children at the community for early detection and treatment of children with eye conditions to avoid preventable eyesight loss.
Mr Sefa stressed the need for the public to desist from discriminating and stigmatising against children with visual impairment or their families to enable them to develop into responsible citizens to contribute to national and their community’s development.
“Most of the time, these children and the parents of children with impairments are discriminated against.
Please, I humbly appeal to all of you to take advantage of any platform that you get to sensitise or advise others and also to support parents or caregivers of children with visual impairment and even the children themselves”, he explained.
Madam Matilda Chireh, the Upper West Regional Director of the DoC, entreated the chiefs and people of the community to embrace the programme in order to derive the maximum benefits from it.
Madam Sangkpi Daanu, a parent of visually impaired children at that community, narrated the pain and challenge she went through when she realised two of her children were visually impaired.
She, however, thanked the Department of Children and its partners for intervening and sending one of her visually impaired children to the Wa Methodist School for the Blind.
“At first, I was always worried when they took my child to the school because I didn’t know how she was faring, but when I went and saw her, I clapped for them in my heart”, she explained.
Madam Daanu encouraged parents to send their visually impaired children to school to enable them to acquire formal education to develop their potential.
Meanwhile, Madam Janet Balabo, a Midwife at the Kpongu Health Centre, indicated that visual impairment could be caused by Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) during pregnancy.
She urged women to take Antenatal care very seriously during pregnancy to avoid their children going blind.
GNA
CAE/CA