Some parents in the Bulenga circuit in the Wa East District have expressed happiness about free eye screening and treatment services the Bliss Eye Care, a private eye clinic in Wa, has extended to the children in the area.
A total of 865 children in the area went through the free screening and treatment exercise with 283 children having normal eyes, 531 having issues related to medication and 23 having conditions that needed eyeglasses while five children had glaucoma and cataract.
The exercise, which was under the Blissful Sight for Kids (BS4Ks) project, a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of the eye clinic, saw the children receive the medications and eyeglasses for free.
Bliss Eye Care, for about eight years now, had been offering free eye screening and treatment services to thousands of children in the Upper West Region and beyond as part of its contribution to providing sight services for children to improve their access to quality education.
Madam Latifa Abdul-Aziz, a parent who came to the screening centre with two children, said they both had eye conditions, one of them had itchy eyes while the other had a condition she could not describe and expressed hope that they would be cured through the screening.
“I am happy that my children have been given medicine because I have been buying from the drugstore for them. Now that the doctor has seen them and given them the medicine, I pray that they will be cured,” she said.
Madam Saida Nuurideen, another parent said, “They have given my child the medicine and I am happy she has been screened and treated. I believe that by God’s grace, she will be healed.”
Mr Nuurdeen Suglo, the Assembly Member for Bulenga Electoral Area, also expressed gratitude to Bliss Eye Care for the intervention and said it would help improve the academic activities of the children.
“We don’t have an eye clinic here, and I know if we don’t do a regular screening for the children, a time will come that they will have problems with their vision and it may be too late to treat,” he explained.
Dr. Zakarea Al-hassan Balure, the Founder and Manager of Bliss Eye Care, expressed concern about the growing trend of people resorting to traditional medications for their children with some eye conditions instead of visiting health facilities for treatment of such conditions.
“One child came here with a rope in the neck, and he said that is what the parents said will heal the eye problem. This is something very worrying. But we have given him the medication,” he observed.
He expressed worry about a family that had almost everyone, from the parents to the children, having eye problems and expressed concern that if action was not taken the whole family could become visually impaired.
Dr. Balure, however, expressed satisfaction with the turnout and said it was an indication of the need for such exercises for the children in that area.
