The Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, in collaboration with Health Services and Environmental Secretariat- FCTA and partners has commemorated the World Sight Day 2024, with the theme: Love Your Eyes Kids
According to Dr. Oteri Okolo Eme, the National Coordinator NEHP, World Sight Day is usually celebrated globally on the 10th of October,
Speaking on the vision and mission of the event, which was held at the Junior Secondary School II Kubwa, Dr. Oteri said,
“Mr. President gave us a marching order and, in compliance with that directive, we decided to interact directly with the people, especially those in our rural areas.
“Basically, the World Sight Day is an advocacy event that will create an awareness about the importance of eye health, in ensuring that every single person; every single Nigerian have access to eye care services. And, when you go to these eye care services, it is to ensure that everyone has good vision. Good vision, as we all know, is very essential to meeting our lives’ needs.
“For instance, among school children, they need to see to be able to perform well educationally. This, generally will enable them perform well in their adulthood, to add to the capacity of the nation. It also comes into play, in the general well-being of the human.
“Vision is central to social, economic development of Nigeria as a nation. Therefore, for us at the national eye health programme, it is our mandate to ensure that no single Nigerian is needlessly blind and it is our responsibility to ensure that those already experiencing blindness have access to qualitative eye care services. In this manner, they can also add to the country’s development in a sustainable way.
“The world sight day does not necessarily mean it is for only those with vision challenges but it is about bringing rehabilitating services to those who are already blind.
“This years’ World Sight Day with the theme; “Love Your Eyes, Kids focuses its attention on kids because they are the future of our communities, our nation and the world in general which is why, we want to position them appropriately for them to be able to achieve maximally for us.
“Eye surveys are very expensive and that being said, government has had several initiatives to reduce the burden of sight loss in Nigeria. For us at the national Eye Health programme, we are not resting on our oars. We know that our intervention is making a difference but, please note that there are other factors that spur us to do more due to our population that is growing every day and also, there has been an increase in life expectancy in the country. Aging and other communicable diseases such as diabetes which affects the eyes means that the prevalence of blindness, despite all the interventions we are putting in place, will increase.
Dr Dan Gadzana, The Director of Public Health, FCT spoke on the plans of Agency to develop the world sight programme, in his words, “The Federal Government developed a policy on eye care and we operationalize those policies, develop guidelines and ensure a seamless implementation.
“The Federal Ministry of Health, two years back, were given the mandate to establish the Eye Unit of our Public Health Department which has been in place, and the eye unit has been involved in several eye programs in terms of sensitization and creation of awareness in the communities.
“In the next couple of days, we will be having over two hundred and fifty cataract surgeries that will be performed free of charge, to be supported by partners. This is of course, as a result of the collaborative effort by the FCT in particular with Eye care unit of the Public Health Department.
“We intend to also have focal persons at the Eye care unit facilities to ensure that we have the grassroots screening exercise and referral systems. We also plan to establish eye care corridors across all the schools in the FCT. At the Eye care Corridors, we intend to train teachers that will be able to screen students which will provide an early identification and then, we also have a referral link system where these children will be catered for and provided with the needed services.
Later at the event, Dr. Okolo spoke on the inadequate number of ophthalmologists to cater for eye services in Nigeria
Dr. Okolo also spoke on the efforts put in place to make provision for free spectacles, “As part of last year’s World Sight day, we launched the effective spectacle coverage initiative in Nigeria which Mr. President approved, that every Nigerian gets a pair of reading glasses.
“Basically, most of that is reading glasses but, we are also going to attend to children. Actually, for this screening exercise, free spectacles for every child who is screened, as part of this event to also have access to these reading glasses. Beyond that, we are also in the early stages of implementing a grant, that will be beyond the FCT. It will be a joint vision and hearing grant to ensure that we screen children for hearing and vision problems.
Mr. President and the Coordinating Minister for Health and Social Welfare including all the principal workers at the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare are working day and night to ensure that Nigerians have all that they need to correct any vision abnormalities, to see that they do better, see better and increase productive capacities that will increase the Gross Domestic Product GDP of our country.
