EXCITING NEWS: TNG WhatsApp Channel is LIVE…
Subscribe for FREE to get LIVE NEWS UPDATE. Click here to subscribe!
Eleta Eye Institute, an NGO, on Friday in Ibadan disclosed that no fewer than 3.15 million Nigerian children were visually impaired.
Its Programme Coordinator, Francis Arogundari, disclosed this during a ‘Seeing is Believing’ (SiB) sensitization programme on comprehensive child eye health.
Arogundari said that the statistics was a threat to the country.
“Over 50 per cent of children die within one to two years after becoming blind as blinding conditions are also causes of child mortality.
“The negative impacts of vision impairment in children include: diminished quality of life, lack of education and challenges in finding employment in future and having negative effects on economic growth,” he said.
He called for an increased public education on the major factors that cause visual impairment in children.
The Cluster Coordinator of SiB, Mr Clement Obayi, said that visual impairment in children usually diminished their quality of life.
He also said that it could negatively impact a country’s economic growth.
Obayi said that 80 per cent of visual impairment could be prevented or cured.
“Studies in Nigeria show that many of the leading causes of blindness in children are preventable and treatable.
“Due to lower rates of school attendance, more children in the north; girls and poor children are less likely to benefit from school eye screening.
“There is the need for specific interventions to reach out to school children,” he said.
He commended the Institute for Media Practitioners and health correspondents in Oyo and Ogun States for being part of the sensitization programme.
In her remarks, the Chairperson, National Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ), Jadesola Ajibola, called for the intervention of the media through sensitization to reduce sudden blindness and visual impairment among children.
Ajibola also charged journalists to educate the public ,especially, parents on the need to advocate for children suffering from eye impairment and talk about the way forward.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that SiB is a programme innitiated by Brien Holden Vision and CBM to promote, prevent and provide rehabilitation and education on child eye health.