By Philip Tengzu
Bawiesibelle, (UW/R), March 20, GNA – Some residents of Bawiesibelle, a community in the Sissala East Municipality, have stressed the need for parents to ensure regular eye screening for their children for early detection of possible eye defects for intervention.
They said good eye condition was paramount for the proper education of children as any eye defect of a child could unduly affect the effective participation of the child in teaching and learning.
Madam Saida Akate, a resident of the community, said this during a free eye screening at the community organised by Bliss Eye Care, a private eye clinic in Wa, in collaboration with the Bawiesibelle community.
The exercise formed part of activities of a coronation ceremony of Alhaji Abdul Salam Bachewii Akate as Kuoro Balugubanie Sapara II, Paramount Chief of the Bawiesibelle Traditional Area.
Bliss Eye Care had been organising routine eye screening for people in communities in the region with a special focus on school children under its Blissful Sight for Kids (BS4Ks) project.
A total of 605 people in the community benefited from the exercise, out of which 535 had pathological issues, 13 had refractive errors and 12 had cataract and Glaucoma.
Madam Akate, a member of the event organizing team, noted that the chief of the community had placed a premium on the health and well-being of the people of the community, which informed their decision to include the eye screening exercise as part of the activities of the coronation ceremony.
“It is an amazing thing that has been done and we are hoping that such opportunities will come more frequently so that people will be educated, especially children, and they will have an understanding of how to take care of their eyesight for a better future”, she explained.
Madam Akate commended Bliss Eye Care for the intervention and said it would be an eye opener for the community members on proper ways to care for the eyes of their children saying, “If you don’t have good eyesight, it is a disability that is hard to deal with.”
The beneficiaries who required medication or corrective glasses were offered at no cost.
Dr. Zakarea Al-hasan Balure, the Founder and Manager of Bliss Eye Care, expressed concern about the inability of people in hard-to-reach communities to seek eye care, especially for their children.
He indicated that people in rural communities were unable to visit the eye care facilities for screening due to their remoteness from those facilities thereby exposing them to serious eye problems.
He said some of the people in the community, for instance who took part in the screening did not know the use of the eye drop that was given to them, probably because they had never seen an eye drop before.
He, however, appealed to the people to develop an interest in caring for their children’s eyes.
GNA