The District Chief Executive for the Wa West District, Madam Vida Diorotey, has commended Bliss Eye Care for extending its free eyes screening exercise to the school children in her district.
She said caring for the eyes of children is very important as it was integral part of the human body, especially as they are school children.
Madam Diorotey said this at Wechiau in the Wa West District during Eye Screening Exercise organized by Bliss Eye Care under its Blissful Sight for Kids project at the weekend.
The Blissful Sight for Kids project sought to “provide good eyes” for thousands of children in the region to enable them participate actively in teaching and learning activities.
In all, 412 children at some selected circuits in the Wa West District were screened with those having vision defects being given medications and glasses while others have been referred for further examination.
She also urged parents to take interest in the welfare of their children, especially ensuring that their children live healthy lives.
She, therefore, expressed worry about some parents who allowed their children attend the eye screening alone and said the children may not be able to follow the prescriptions of the health personnel.
We are appealing to them [Bliss Eye Care] to come back and screen more children, so I am pleading with the parents, they should not leave the children to come alone, they should come with the children”, she said.
Some parents, who spoke to Info radio after their children were screened, commended Bliss Eye Care for the initiative.
Mr Banda Naa Adams, a parent, also expressed worry about the indifferent attitude of some parents towards the health of their children.
He explained that parents and guardians were supposed to go to the screening centre with their wards but rather left the children to come alone which he said was unfortunate.
“We those in the village our children will be sick but the parents cannot send them to the hospital. If you do self-medication for your children how will you you know it is good. I came with my child and she has been screened I am happy. Parents have to take advantage of these free exercises”, he explained.
Dr. Zakarea Alhasan Baluri, the Manager of Bliss Eye Care, noted that the exercise was a success as the objective of screening the children was achieved.
He however said the number of children that attended were below expectation as they targeted to screen over a thousand children.
“The good lord gave us only a pair of eyes and this is irreplaceable…so as much as possible lets guide and guide these eyes very well. There is no substitute anywhere, so don’t do self-medication and don’t jump into traditional medication so much”, Dr. Baluri explained.
The Wa West District School Health Education programme (SHEP) Coordinator, Mr Patrick Mornah, noted that the Ghana Education Service organized the eye screening exercise in collaboration with Bliss Eye Care to ensure early detection of eyes problems that the school children maybe suffering from for treatment.
He therefor urged parents not to wait for their children to go blind before they begin to look for remedy for the blindness but take advantage of the free screening exercises that have been ongoing.