Giving succour to people with eye problems
The eye, unarguably, remains one of the most vital and delicate organs of the human body because human existence without it could be miserable and frustrating.
Over the years, there have been concerns over cases of eyerelated ailments such as cataract, glaucoma, amblyopia, refractive errors and age-related eye defects especially amongst indigent and less privileged people within the Kogi Central Senatorial District.
Many of the people with these eye problems often experience partial or total loss of sight largely due to lack of financial wherewithal to go for proper treatment on time.
Worried by the development, a philanthropic organisation, Asmau Foundation, led by its founder, Alhaji Sanusi Abubakar Gamji, in the year 2000 launched a yearly free eye treatment programme to ameliorate the plight of the people.
The free eye treatment programme, which holds at the Okene General Hospital in January each year, has helped in restoring sight and hope to many beneficiaries over the last seven years.
At the 7th edition of the free eye treatment programme, some of the beneficiaries bared their minds on how it has restored happiness to their lives.
Mariam Musa is a 67-year-old woman from Okene Local Government Area, who had lived for over 10 years with an eye defect until succour came her way through the last year's edition of the programme.
Mariam said she came to the venue of the health outreach this year to express her gratitude to the founder for restoring her lost hope of regaining her sight.
According to her, she had been living with eye problem in the last 10 years but lack of finance hindered her from accessing quality treatment.
She appealed to the government and corporate organizations in the country and beyond to support the selfless service of the foundation.
Another beneficiary, Amina Ahmed, said she was overwhelmed with joy that she could have her sight restored.
Another beneficiary commended the foundation and charged government to support the programme to enable many other people to benefit from it.
On his part, Musa Audu, who hails from Auchi in Edo State said he came to know of the programme from a friend and decided to come and seek attention for the cataract problem he has been suffering for seven years.
He noted that the high cost of surgery prevented him from going to hospital for an operation.
Ahmed, who said he was operated on free and given some drugs, thanked the Asmau Foundation for bringing hope to the less privileged.
Another beneficiary, Usman Ohida who is a primary four pupil at the LGEA primary school at Upogoro in Okene, said he had been suffering from painful itching in the eyes which often turned reddish.
According to him, the problem had been hampering his studies, adding that with the diagnosis and drugs given to him by opticians, he is assured of having his sight return to normal.
The chief executive officer of the foundation, Alhaji Sanusi Abubakar Gamji, said he was fulfilled that the programme has been able to impact many lives since it began about seven years ago.
He said: "The free eye treatment programme is usually a holistic effort towards ameliorating the suffering of our people due to various degrees of eye problems. We discovered that many people are confronted with eye ailments, but they don't know how to go about it because of the high cost of treatment.
"This situation led Asmau Foundation to venture into free eye treatment at the headquarters of the foundation in Okene LGA where many people with various eye infections are treated.”
He said the exercise included screening the patients to ascertain the nature of their problems, treatment, surgeries a n d distribution of eye glasses. “It is imperative to say that these services are provided for free to the beneficiaries as the cost is always shouldered fully by the foundation," he said.
Gamji said since the commencement of the free eye treatment, over 25,000 patients have benefited from eye surgeries performed by competent surgeons while over 40,000 have enjoyed various eye treatment and provision of eye glasses.
He noted that the foundation had also concluded arrangements to procure a dialysis machine to assist people with renal failure.
He said the foundation was ready to collaborate with government and relevant international organizations to enable it expand its frontiers so that more people benefit from the services.
According to him, over N150 million has been committed to the programme since its commencement.
Also commenting on the programme, the Kogi State coordinator of the foundation, Mr Mohammed Yusuf, said the annual free treatment programme had made impact on the lives of people in the state and beyond. He appealed to international organizations to support Asmau Foundation so that the programme can expand.
Prof. Sunday Ododo of the Department of Visual and Performing Art, University of Maiduguri, commended the foundation and urged other well-to-do individual to emulate same.