18th October, 2013
Guinness Nigeria Plc has lent its voice to the global war against surmountable sight problems, urging Nigerians to take advantage of the awareness generated by the 2013 World Sight Day to get their eyes tested in keeping with the call to action as part of this year’s celebration.
The company expressed pleasure that the World Health Organisation (WHO) has chosen to treat 2013 as an important year on the war against sight challenges which will witness “the launch of a new WHO Action Plan on the prevention of avoidable blindness and visual impairment 2014-19,” according to a statement from the WHO.
Corporate Communications Manager, Guinness Nigeria Plc, Olayinka Edmond expressed delight at the call to action issued by the WHO, urging “Nigerians to take advantage of the occasion and walk into any of the state of the art eye centres equipped by Guinness Nigeria Plc in Lagos and Onitsha to get their eyes tested in order to avoid preventable blindness and visual impairment.”
She pointed out that in keeping with corporate social responsibility goals of Guinness Nigeria, the company had equipped and donated eye centres in Lagos and Onitsha. Guinness has donated two well equipped eye centres, namely the Guinness Eye Centre, Lagos and Guinness Eye Centre, Onitsha operating under the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi Araba and the Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital, Onitsha respectively for public use.
According to WHO “the Action Plan identifies its purpose as to ‘increasing access to comprehensive eye care services that are integrated into health systems.
‘‘The theme for World Sight Day 2013 comes from this focus. ‘Universal Eye Health’ embodies many critical aspects of successful eye health uptake, and so IAPB believes that we should use a rolling theme – ‘Universal Eye Health’ will remain the theme for the next couple of years.”
Guinness recently donated Haag-Streit Diagnostics slit lamps to the Eye Centre in Lagos, and a Mindray Anesthesia Machine to the Anambra State centre.
Speaking at the handing over, Mrs. Adrianne Nwagwu, Head, Sustainability and Responsibility, Guinness Nigeria Plc, said the donation of equipment to the Eye Centres was in line with the corporate philosophy of the company to positively enrich lives in the communities in which it operates.
While receiving the eye care equipment on behalf of the Management and Staff of the Hospital, Mrs. Folasade Akinsola, Head of Ophthalmology Department, Guinness Eye Centre, LUTH, described the donation as a welcome development and thanked Guinness Nigeria Plc for the donation as well as the continued support for the hospital since inception.