A non-governmental organisation, Eye Care Aid Foundation and Vision Spring under the auspices of Aspire Coronation Trust (ACT) Foundation has commenced free screening and distribution of free reading glasses to over 20,000 aged and indigent people in the six area councils of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The chief executive officer of Eye Care Aid Foundation, Dr Adesuwa Agbontaen, while speaking to journalists during the maiden edition of the free eye screening and distribution of reading glasses camp, with the theme: “Increasing Access To Reading Glasses,” said that they decided to reach out to people with sight defect to assist them to have clear vision at no cost.
Agbontaen explained that they have a mandate to reach out to the aged and indigent people who can not afford eye screening and reading glasses in all the communities in the six area councils of the FCT.
“The ACT Foundation is sponsoring this free eye checking and glasses for those that need glasses, throughout all the communities and health centers and we are going to offer this service to them for free for the next one year.
“We want to be able to bring to the fore the issues of eye care, because it is very important and we should always talk about it. The eye is an organ of sight that if anything happens to it, you cannot recover from it. So, we want to make sure that we assist indigent people and those that need glasses and do not know how to get them,” he said.
The optometrist and business development specialist of Vision Spring, Dr Tochukwu Onwuzulike, said the programme is in line with the theme, which is to increase access to reading glasses.
“The need to increase access to reading classes is pressing. Because of the huge scale of the problem presbyopia presents is an age-related physiological condition that makes it difficult for people to see clearly at close range and at night.
“This problem affects over 1 billion people across the globe. Nigeria is among the top 10 most populous countries in the world. The burden of presbyopia is very huge in the country,” he said.
