Date: 2017-02-16

The Wife of the Kwara State Governor, Mrs Omolewa Ahmed has tasked mothers to always take precautionary measures against child-hood blindness.

Mrs Ahmed made the call on Wednesday at the Kwara State Vision-Save Project in collaboration with the United States Agency International Development (USAID) held at Centre Igboro, Ilorin.

According to her, the eye is very delicately made and has several fine and complex parts, stressing the need for mothers to always immunize their children against blindness.

The wife of the governor who is also the founder of LEAH Foundation, commended the State Government for empowering the physically challenged youths in the State and enjoined relevant stakeholders in the state to collaborate in fighting against child-hood blindness.

Also, the State Commissioner for Health, Alhaji Suleiman Atolagbe Alege appreciated the efforts of the Agency in collaboration with the State Government towards providing adequate and affordable health care service delivery to the people of the state.

Alhaji Alege promised to carry the project to every nooks and crannies of the state, saying that detection of blindness is preventable and manageable.

In her remark, a Consultant Ophthalmologist at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, Doctor Dupe Ademola-Popoola said the project is first of its kind in Nigeria and became successful as a result of efforts put in place by the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital towards ensuring eye care programme in the country.

According to her, the World Health Organization is concerned about child-hood blindness, stating that about one point five million children are blind worldwide, while three out of ten thousand children are blind in the developed countries, with twelve out of ten thousand in developing countries mostly in Africa and Asia.

She explained that already children with eye problems including cancer of the eyes have been referred from the immunization points located at Centre Igboro, DHU Afon, UITH Maternity Amilegbe and UITH Permanent Site.

Doctor Ademola-Popoola added that the State Governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed had in January 2014 signed a law that makes vision screening compulsory for children of age zero to five in the state in other to reduce the incidence of child-hood blindness.