The Upper West Regional Department of Children, under the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, has held a community-wide sensitization on visual impairment, especially among children, in Busa community in the Wa Municipality.
Held on the theme, "Caring for Children with Visual Impairment", the project formed part of collaborative efforts by the Ministry with its departments with support from Visio International and the Presbyterian Health Services to promote eye health among children.
The sensitization aimed at drawing community members' attention to the causes, effects and treatment for visual impairment with emphasis on early detection and enrollment of children with visual impairment in school.
As part of the sensitization, an eye screening session was held for children in the community in which 294 children were screened comprising 129 males and 165 females of which ten of them detected with problems were given referral notes for further medical advice.
The Upper West Regional Director of the Department of Children, Madam Matilda Chireh said the project was being implemented across six districts in the country of which Wa Municipality was a beneficiary and the sensitization carried out in selected communities.
She advised the community members to avoid discrimination and other forms of negative stereotyping against children with visual impairments but rather support them to unearth their potentials.
She urged parents, guardians and caretakers who live with children with visual impairments to enroll them in school saying, the Wa School for the Blind, a special education institution, was just close by.
The Wa Municipal Special Education Officer, Mr Sebastian Amuh said visual impairment was never an end to an individual's life in pursuing their ambitions and acquiring valuable skills for daily living and living earning.
He said every individual possessed inherent talents that must be purposely harnessed regardless of their impairment in any part of the body.
He also called on parents to not keep their children with visual impairments at home but to take them school, emphasizing that every child has the right to education.
The Wa Municipal Coordinating Director, Pognaa Fati Issaka Koray, urged parents to look out for early signs of visual problems among children and to seek early remediation before it escalates.
She emphasized that the education of children with visual impairments was important as she cited Dr Seidu Danaa, former Chieftaincy Minister and Dr Bashiru Koray, both lawyers and prominent figures with visual impairment hailing from the Upper West Region, who are performing exceptionally in their fields.
She, thus, urged the community members to take advantage of the sensitization to help their children attain their fullest potentials.
The Assembly Member, Mr Mahama Mwiniyella, on behalf of the community, expressed gratitude for the sensitization and pledged the community would take optimum advantage of it.