Mr Abudi Issahaku, the Wa Municipal Coordinator of the School Health Education Programme (SHEP), has stressed the need for parents and guardians to exhibit special interest in caring for the eyes of their wards.
He said children who had difficulty in seeing equally had difficulty in learning, which eventually affects their education and development.
“The importance of eyes cannot be overemphasized when it comes to teaching and learning and for that matter education,” Mr Issahaku said in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Sing during a free eyes screening exercise for basic school children.
In all, about 600 children from the Biihe and Sing Basic Schools in the Wa Municipality had their eyes screened by Bliss Eye Care, a private Eye Clinic in Wa, under its Blissful Sight for Kids project in partnership with the Wa Municipal Education Directorate.
The children who had eye conditions were provided with free medication while those who required glasses were also offered for free.
Over the past seven years, Bliss Eye Care has been screening school children’s eyes with thousands of children benefiting from the project so far.
Mr Issahaku explained that the screening exercise was to enable them detect children with eyes conditions for timely intervention to save them from losing their sight.
“So, one of the beautiful things is to detect school children with eye conditions and find appropriate remedies for them,” the SHEP Coordinator said.
He indicated that plans were afoot to extend the eye screening exercise to the children at Boli, Dapuoha, Seyiri, and LoguKora communities.
Mr Issahaku appealed to parents and guardians to also endeavour to go with their children to the health screening centres as the child could not follow the appropriate prescription when necessary.
Dr. Zakarea Al-hassan Balure, an Optometrist and Manager of Bliss Eye Care, described the eye screening exercise at Sing as successful as the turnout showed their need and readiness for the exercise as they defied the adverse weather condition to still turn up for the screening.
The Optometrist said about five children were detected with some eye conditions and would be provided with eyeglasses or other interventions needed at no cost to the child.
Dr. Balure also educated some parents whose wards had eye conditions on how to properly care for the eyes of their children.
The parents and guardians expressed gratitude to Bliss Eye Care and the Wa Municipal Education Directorate for the intervention, which had helped expose the eye defects of their children and provided them with free medication.
