Group targets 1.5m students for eye test, surgery

Seeing is Believing (SIB), a development-based group said it is targeting 1.5 million school children for eye test and surgery to commemorate the World Sight Day.

The Programme Director, Dr. Juliana Nathaniel, told newsmen in Abuja that the children were being reached across 11 states for the free medical services.

At an event tagged, ‘Make Vision Count’, she said the age group being targeted was from zero to 14 years, while ensuring SIB created awareness on preventing blindness among children.

She noted that 0.6 per cent of children were blind in Nigeria, adding that her group was working with hospitals in tertiary and secondary institutions to provide 24,600 spectacles to children, free eye tests and surgery to tackle blindness.

She maintained that SIB partnered with the Federal Ministry of Health and Christophel Blinding Mission (CBM) to create awareness, provide eye sight services and rehabilitative care centres for blind children rather than allow them roam the streets.

The Coordinator of Eye Health Unit, Dr. Nicholas Olobo, said, “Children are the leaders of tomorrow and we are avoiding any mistakes or errors by tackling blindness from the inception.”

Olobo disclosed that the Federal Government, in collaboration with several agencies, had mapped out 462 districts in the Glaucoma endemic region which was a major cause of blindness in children.

A Director from the Ministry of Health, Dr. Ibrahim Kana, also identified that sight and vision were important and children who could not see would be dull, find learning difficult and lose attention easily.

The event had pupils from 15 junior secondary schools in the FCT as participants of the campaign, where they were taught several awareness and preventive tips by experts.