(Saturday, October 16, 2021, Todee, District)—the Ministry of Health through the National Eyes Health Program on Saturday, October 16, 2021, joined global partners to observe World Eye Sight Day.
World Sight Day is an international day of awareness, held annually on the second Thursday of October, to focus attention on the global issue of eye health, with a theme: “Love Your Eyes”.
In fulfilment of this historic occasion, earlier awareness was created in Todee District, rural Montserrado County. People living blindness or having eye sight issues were assembled at the Nyehn Health Center to receive free screenings and medical.
This year awareness is more important than ever as recently researchers have found a rise in nearsightedness in children during home confinement due to the pandemic. To help you access important educational information, we’ve put together a collection of resources that can be used individually.
“World Sight Day, observed annually on the second Thursday of October, is a global event meant to draw attention on blindness and vision impairment,” Dr Joseph Kerkulah, Director, National Eye Health Program at the Ministry of Health. “This year World Sight Day was observed on October 14 globally, but we decided to push it to this day (Saturday) to enable our people to fairly be a part of the process—the free eye screening you see our nurses and medical experts are carrying out here. Reduced or absent eyesight can have major and long-lasting effects on all aspects of life, including daily personal activities, interacting with the community, school and work opportunities and the ability to access public services.”
Several persons who went to the Nyehn Health Center expressed on how it takes to have or experience reduced eyesight which is reportedly caused by several factors, including diseases like diabetes and trachoma, trauma to the eyes, or conditions such as refractive error, cataracts, age-related macular degeneration or glaucoma.
“my eyes have been giving me hard time since 20 years ago. It started in 2000 when I was laying down after burning my cold; and while I eyes were opened, something dropped in my left eye. Since then, I have been experiencing little problem. But now, I barely read without eye glasses”, Eric Frederick, 55, a resident of Dogbah-Lon Ton, explained his ordeal.
Lions Clubs International partnered with blindness prevention organizations worldwide to commemorate the first World Sight Day on October 8, 1998. This event was later integrated into VISION 2020, a global initiative that the IAPB coordinates.
This year celebration is a joint program organized by the Ministry of Health, Lions club International, LV Prasad Eye Institute, EyeIliance, Sight Saver, Samaritan’s Purse and OneSight.