By Sani Yarima
The Taraba State chapter of the Nigerian Optometric Association has organized workshops for Primary and Secondary school children to mark the 2024 World Sight Day.
The workshops are taking place in some selected Public and Private schools in Jalingo, the state capital.
World Sight Day is celebrated annually every second Thursday of October and is a global event meant to draw attention to the prevention of blindness and vision impairment.
It was originally established in 2000 by the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness 2000 as part of its VISION 2020: THE RIGHT TO SIGHT.
The Theme for the WSD 2024 is “Love Your Eyes; Vision for Children.”It highlights the importance of protecting children’s eyes, supporting good vision, and overall health of the Child.
World Sight Day is a time to engage and advocate with policymakers, partners, and all relevant stakeholders on collaborating to ensure quality Eye care services are always provided to the populace.
This can be possible when the right professionals are employed and there’s an adequate distribution of optometrists across the state and local government areas.
Delivering a lecture at Omas Academy on the Theme, the Chairperson of the Nigerian Optometric Association, Taraba State chapter, Dr. Mrs. Grace Ahams-Akor, called on the parents to take their children’s eye health seriously and take them for an eye examination at least once a year.
She advocated for the government to establish a policy on school vision screening and partner with the association to work out a proper template on what an eye care examination form should entail because many aspects of the visual system go unchecked.
“Medical certificates are easily obtained, and even though the hospitals are visited, you can’t tell exactly who attended to the child, but with a proper screening template, you are certain that an optometrist, the Primary eye care Physician, examines the child.”
She elaborated that the eye care field has several partners who collaborate to provide the best care and referrals are made to the Consultant Optometrist and Ophthalmologist when the need arises.
Therefore, Mrs. Ahams-Akor urged the parents, guardians, and Caregivers to be partners to ensure that they do not neglect the eye concerns of the wards and respond quickly to any eye challenge by taking them to the right professionals for care.
In their separate lectures, Dr. Mrs. Angela Oleka, the Secretary of the association, spoke on breaking the stigma and misconception of children being too young to begin the use of spectacles.
She stressed that with the technology age, it’s almost a new normal for the majority to use spectacles, especially the young to protect their eyes from damaging rays.
Dr. Isma’il Ibrahim Tumfafi highlighted a salient point affecting children, which is the ocular hazard from childhood injuries. He urged children to always play safe.
The Principal of the Academy, Pastor Gabriel Shinyi, thanked the organizers for selecting the school and enlightening the children and teachers on the need to be conscious of their eye health, which he said is a crucial part of life.
The Head Boy, Wisdom Kome, and Head Girl, Afordia Emmanuel, all appreciated the organizers for the gesture, saying that they had learned a lot from the workshop and promising to inform their parents to take necessary action.