18th October, 2012
As part of activities to mark this year’s World Sight Day, the Ikoyi Lions Club recently took its humanitarian services to schools in Lagos State, southwest Nigeria, where they provided free eye glasses and other medical care for pupils and students.
At the Holy Cross Primary School on Lagos Island where P.M.NEWS met optometrists screening pupils, the president of the club, Mrs. Labo Simplice, said over 200 residents of the state had benefited from the programme.
According to her, the Ikoyi Lions Club decided to visit schools after its head in Nigeria, Sam Ekpo gave the instruction.
“This year, our head, Sam Ekpo, said we should visit schools and screen kids and also take care of their eyes.
Some of these children have serious challenges with their eyes and their parents may not know. Rather than go for medical checks, the parents give them money to buy drugs,” she lamented.
Simplice said eye screening and provision of glasses and medications were a yearly activity of the club in collaboration with the United Nations.
“We carry out the Sight First Programme in which we give out free medical glasses, do eye checks and carry out diabetes screening and give out drugs.
“In 1995, the club decided to eradicate blindness in the world and since then, one of the major goals of the club has been the eradication of blindness in communities,” she said, adding that the fund for the programme is sourced through sponsorships and contributions from members.
She said the club also visited the school of the blind in Surulere as well as hospitals where it donated food and other items.
She advised parents to ensure they start checking their children’s eyes right from birth so that where defects are discovered, they would be immediately taken care of before the children grow up.
Chairman of the club’s organising committee, Mr. Fatai Balogun, who also lamented the rate of preventable blindness in the country, said its eradication had become a major challenge for the club.
“This is why we have brought over 200 glasses and also brought doctors to check the beneficiaries for free,” he said.
For those whose cases are complicated, they are referred to specialists and their treatments taken care of by the club.
He said there were no criteria for picking beneficiaries as according to him, “we visit communities where we feel the residents are prone to vision impairment and since children are supposed to be the leaders of tomorrow we chose this school and some others within reach.”
He however said the screening was not limited to the school children as adults within the communities they visited also benefited.
He advised Nigerians to go for eye screening especially when they become 40 years old and above as this is the period when they could be prone to glaucoma.
He also advised that where those with eye problems cannot fund the treatment, they should visit any of the Lions Club district close to them.
—EROMOSELE EBHOMELE