Dr Conrad Opara, an Optometrist and a serving Youth Corps member with the Ministry of Defence, has distributed reading glasses to Internally Displaced Persons(IDPs) and students with visual challenges.
Opara told the News Agency of Nigeria(NAN) in Abuja, at the end of a three-day free eye screening and sensitisation programme tagged “First Vision Initiative, that it was needful.
He disclosed that part of the programme was distribution of eye drops, basic health checks as well as sensitisation on personal hygiene among others.
The corps member further disclosed that his decision to embark on the programme as part of his Community Development Service(CDS) project, was to give back to the society.
He said that part of the inspiration to embark on the project was in line with the Sustainable Development Goals-3, which emphasised good health and wellbeing.
He added that the Health Initiative for Rural Dwellers (HIRD) kicked off by the Director General of National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), inspired him to embark on the project.
Opara said the project took place at Junior Secondary School(JSS) Galadinmawa, Government Secondary School(GSS) Area 10 and Area 1 (Durumi) IDP camp, all in the Federal Capital Territory(FCT).
According to him, the choice of IDPs and people in rural communities is the fact that they have little or no access to basic healthcare.
He said, “this is a personal community development project designed to reach out to the rural communities.
“It is my way of giving back to the society.
“It is a health initiative designed to help those who cannot afford basic health facilities.
“These are communities that have been affected in one way or the other in terms of insecurity and the likes,” he said.
He further said the initiative provided “free eye screenings and basic checks like blood pressure, blood sugar and HIV tests.
“We tried to give them reading glasses as well because some of them have difficulty reading.
“Like in the Internally Displaced Persons camp, you see a lot of older people that have difficulty reading and those that cannot afford medication.
“IDPs are faced with a lot of challenges especially environmental challenges, so we also tried to sensitise them on personal hygiene and visual hygiene.”
Opara noted that investing in healthcare must be made a priority by all concern in order to make lasting impact, particularly in preventing blindness.
He commended the Nigerian Optometric Association for being a major sponsor of the project.
He also commended the NYSC and Ministry of Defence for their support.
Mrs kome Awaridhe, CDS officer in charge of SDG, in a separate interview, commended Opara for coming up with such initiative.
“Dr Conrad Opara is one of my corps members and the initiative is very beautiful because the eyes eat before the mouth.
“If you do not have good eyesight there are a lot of things that will go wrong.
“So, the Vision First Initiative is a welcome development.
“The project is laudable and we do not really look at the size of a project.
“We look at how many lives have been touched and from the time the project started till now, you can imagine how many lives have been touched,” she said.
Awaridhe noted that the programme was a unique one, adding that children were also made to benefit from the free services.
She said, “a lot of children have been tested. Most of them did not even know about the eye problems they had.
“Some were born with eye defects but because they had not been tested they did not actually know.
“For children for instance, it has always been advised that they should be tested early enough so that if there is any form of eye defect, it can be corrected early.”