The Accra Golden Lions Club under the Lions Clubs International on Friday organised a free eye-screening for pupils of Anumle Cluster of Schools in Accra to improve their sight.
The exercise was in collaboration with the Ghana Education Service (GES), Anumle Cluster of Schools and a group of optometrists.
The Committee Chairperson of the Vision Project, Francis KwasiDanquah, said the exercise formed part of their monthlyactivities to support the visually impaired in the country.
According to him, the exercise was extended to the pupils based on their assessment, to prevent early blindness among them.
“This year we decided to bring it to the kids to try looking at preventing it rather than trying to support those who are already suffering,” he added.
Mr Danquah said their target was to screen about 1,200 pupils and beneficiaries with severe eye-related issues would be referred to eye clinics or specialists for further treatment.
“ So far so good, but we have identified that some of the children already have challenges with their eyes and after the exercise we will go back to the club, make a decision and involve the parents as well as the school to see how best we can help them in terms of treatment,” he added.
Mr Danquah used the opportunity to entreat the public to ensure regular eye check-ups to prevent early blindness.
Dr Alfred Gardemor, an optometrist, said the exercise would help the pupils know their eye status to find early solutions to them so that it does not affect their studies while in school.
He indicated that the most dominant defects detected among the pupils were refractive errors and ocular allergies.
Dr Gardemor explained that the refractive errors were a common eye disorder which occurred when the eye could not clearly focus on images, while the ocular allergies was an itchy eye condition that made affected persons rub their eyes excessively.
“These defects usually results in blurred vision and causes visual impairment and so a lot of them will need glasses to be able to see because without that, their vision in class will not be the best,” he stated.
Fuseini Leila, a beneficiary and a final year pupil of Anumle Basic School said “we are so much grateful to them because this will help us the candidates to know our status to prevent it so that it does not affect our exams.”
Another beneficiary, Oscar Foto, said “we thank Lions Club so much for bringing this exercise to our school. It has helped us a lot because sometimes we don’t get the chance and money to go to the hospital for such screenings so this will go a long way to improve our health.”
BY VIVIAN ARTHUR
