Danku: 646 pupils benefit from Blissful Sight For Kids Project

School children within the Danku, Bamahu and other nearby communities in the Wa Municipality of the Upper West Region on Saturday June 22, 2024 benefited from the Blissful Sights For Kids Project (BS4Ks) after going through a free eyes examination exercise organized by Bliss Eye Care and its partners under the auspices of the BS4KS project.

The free eyes screening exercise witnessed 646 pupils participating in the exercise and out of the number 127 pupils had Normal Eyes whiles Pathological ( having issues related to medication) pegging at 492.

Also pupils diagnosed of having Refractive Errors thus having issues relating to eyeglasses numbered 12 whereas Cataract and Glaucoma cases were found in 15 pupils.

The Bliss Sight For Kids Project team gave free medications to the school children and those with special cases that needed special attention were appropriately referred to the nearby heath facilities.

Dr. Zakarea Al-Hassan Balure, the Manager of Bliss Eye Care, encouraged parents and guardians to take eye care of their children seriously as poor eyesight negatively impact every aspect of the child’s life.

Bliss Eye Care in collaboration with GhanaVision and the Wa Municipal Education Directorate put together the free eyes treatment exercise under the Blissful Sight for Kids (BS4Ks) project as part of the social corporate responsibility of the leading private eye care center in the Upper West Region.

On his part, Mr. Issahaku Abudu, School Health Education Programme’s Coordinator for Wa Municipal Education Directorate on behalf of the GES expressed gratitude to the Blissful Sight For Kids Project’s team, partners and Bliss Eye Care for choosing to medically support school children by way of screening their eyes and providing them with medications at no cost.

“Looking at the screening exercises, it’s a lot that has gone into it, all we can say is that, we thank Bliss Eye Care for providing us these services anytime we call on him he doesn’t hesitate to come around and help us”. Mr. Abudu noted.

He adds that, the exercise will aid the children’s sight which will translate into improving their learning outcomes in the long run.

“It impacts the children a lot, some of them have difficulty in seeing, some are also having other eye conditions, so the medications given them will go a long way to treat some of these minor illnesses, some of them are also going to be given reading glasses which will go a long way to improve their sights and it will increase their learning outcomes” he stated.

The SHEP Coordinator further noted that a lot of the school children are having problems with their sights and bemoaned the lackadaisical nature of some parents in sending their wards to the health facilities for check up.

“Some of the children are having challenges when it comes to their sights and once you have a problem with your sight it is difficult to see the book or see the board, so those who are having the challenges are actually going through difficult situations, the sad aspect is that parents are not concerned that’s the sad aspect of it, usually parents are support to take their wards to the hospitals for treatment but even when the teachers identify some of the problems and informed the parents but no action is been taken which is a worrying trend for us”.

George Dari, a parent of George Yaw, a pupil of the Tabiasi M/A Primary school, also one of the beneficiaries of the free eyes screening exercise blithely thanked Bliss Eye Care and the Wa Municipal Education Directorate’s SHEP Coordinator for extending the intervention to his ward (George Yaw) who was spotted by the Coordinator lying on his belly in the class in order to be able to see what was written on the black board.

Meanwhile, Assembly Member for the Danku-Bamahu electoral area, Hon. Adams Jiga, seized the opportunity and expressed gratitude to the organizers of the exercise and also used the medium and appealed to parents to pay more attention to the health needs of their wards especially their sights.

By: Saeed Fatawu|myghanawatch.com|0248265593|sdfatawu@gmail.com|