In celebration of World Sight Day (WSD), Good Vision Liberia (GVL), which provides optical services globally, organized a four-day eye screening and blindness prevention for primary school students and teachers.
In an exclusive interview Thursday, October 10th, on the campus of the Living Water Baptist School on the Old Road, GVL Country Director, Mr. Jackson T. Smith said his organization is in Liberia to ‘fully support’ the government’s eye-care, health policy and to implement policies aimed at limiting blindness and eye diseases.
Smith further stated that every second Thursday in October is globally celebrated as WSD and so they at GVL joined other eye-care service providers in Liberia to create more awareness around caring for the eye. “Today marks another unique day for everyone who is involved into eye care services to help people who are in need especially those suffering from eye conditions,” he said.
Smith, who along with his GVL team, was on the Living Water Baptist School campus on Thursday, said they had gathered on that school campus to support and provide eye-care services for the students and their teachers.
“One of the things we at Good Vision Liberia know is that poor sight leads to poor academic performance. So, the better our children’s eyes are, the better they are going to have the opportunity to read. We have come around here today to support the Living Water Baptist School System with the provision of glasses for the students and teachers,” he further stated.
In his WSD message, Smith urged Liberians to take eye issues very seriously. “It is very important most especially for students; and today is about students. We need to take our children regularly for eye tests because blindness is serious.”
He emphasized that blindness is a very serious issue in Liberia; adding: “As we take malaria serious, that is the same way we should treat eye care.”
Touching on the cost of the four-day events on GVL’s budget, Smith said they don’t consider costs when it comes to providing care for the eyes. Notwithstanding, he disclosed that the events could cost GVL around US$6,000.
Also speaking, Mr. Hiaka Hinneh, National Eye Health Coordinator, Ministry of Health, said the GVL’s World Sight Day initiative was in line with both the national and global agendas.
“As you may be aware, the second Thursday in October is celebrated globally as WSD. The essence of this day is to create awareness and advocate for the visually-impaired,” he stated.
He said the Ministry of Health has been collaborating with eye-care service providers in the country to ensure that eye-health education is intensified in schools: “providing education to the students, to the teachers and to the parents-teachers associations.”
“When people have the appropriate education about their eyes, it will definitely reduce the prevalence of blindness in the country,” Hinneh stressed.
The WSD was held under the global theme, “Love Your Eye” and the national theme was, “Children, Love Your Eyes Every Time.”
Before the GVL technicians handed out a pair of glasses, every recipient’s eyes were screened using the ‘Tumbling E’ Eye Chart, which was placed 10 feet away from the interviewees.
The Good Vision Technicians (GVT)/screeners and the interviewees had sign language and verbal interactions in order to determine whether the interviewees’ eyes needed glasses or not based on the E Chart, which is the basic of eye screening anywhere in the world.
The GVL team began their four-day outreach activities on Tuesday. They stopped by at the public school in one of Liberia’s heavily impoverished communities in the capital— Peace Island (540) in Congotown.
At the Peace Island Public School, over 250 students and teachers were screened by the GVT and more than 35 pairs of glasses were freely handed out.
On Wednesday, October 9th, the eyes of 350 students and teachers at Muslim Congress High School on Mechlin Street, Central Monrovia, were screened; and 40 pairs of glasses were handed out.
At the Living Water Baptist School, 257 persons were screened and 38 pairs of glasses were given to students and others.
On Friday, the GVL team screened 65 persons and handed out seven pairs of glasses to students of the Jones Christian Academy opposite the Ministry of Health in Oldest Congotown.
So in celebration of the WSD, GVL screened 922 people’s eyes and distributed 120 pairs of glasses.
During interactions at all of the four primary schools, the GVL team provided to the students and teachers eye education, including how to notice eye symptoms and where to seek immediate help.
At the Good Vision’s offices within the St. Joseph’s Catholic Hospital Compound, eye screening is done free of charge for anyone who walks in and a pair of fitted glasses is handed out at a minimum cost of L$600 or US$5, depending on what the individual can afford. This is practically a free service for humanity.
The Good Vision office in Liberia is one of four on the continent and one of 13 worldwide.
