By Oti Maduabuchi Orieji
Unless one is diagnosed with an eye disorder, one can easily overlook the virtue of vision. In Nigeria today, mainly in rural areas, a lot of people are faced with several eye difficulties which include glaucoma, cataract, age-related macular regression, diabetic retinopathy, or Ocular surface disease among many other common eye problems. Patients with any form of eye problem require early screening to determine the condition and proper treatment from trained optometrists and ophthalmologists to avert blindness. Many have lost their sight to due lack of proper treatment or lack of finance to access good treatment while some of these eye disorders remain preventable, yet many are still going blind due to unprofessional optometrists and ophthalmologists.
The 2023 edition of Omereoha/ Mezie Abis’s Free Medical Outreach kickstarted on the 4th and ended on the 13th of January 2023. In this year’s edition, the Omereoha Free Medical Outreach focused on free eye treatment which featured
* FREE MEDICAL TEST
* FREE EYE SCREENING
* FREE TREATMENT
* FREE GLASSES
* FREE OCULAR DRUGS/DROPS
* FREE GENERAL DRUGS
The outreach which covered two local governments in Abia State, Arochukwu and Ohafia LGA had the team of medical personnel visit all the clans in the two Local governments. The clans visited in Ohafia are Nkporo, Abiriba,Ebem Ohafia while in Arochukwu they were at Isu, Obinkita, Ututu, Abam and Ihechiowa. The mobile eye clinic is publicized in advance and people from the clan congregate to be screened.
During the exercise, the team of professional optometrists and ophthalmologists extensively interviewed and examined the patients in the two local governments to enable them to proffer a proper medical response to them, they investigated the demographic of presenting patients, their visual acuities and barriers that prevented them from seeking early medical treatment. It was discovered that money, distance, lack of specialist and fear held most of them from seeking medical eye treatment.
Dr. Daniel Chimezie Okeke’s slavish adherence to philanthropy has always put him at the vanguard of philanthropy wherever his name is mentioned. His boundless interest in reaching out to society through several media has earned him several acknowledgments.
In the minds of many beneficiaries of this year’s medical outreach, Mezie Abia became their second hope of using their eyes to picture the beauty of nature, especially those who couldn’t afford medical screening before the exercise. As their illuminating expression interprets how overwhelmed they felt to have accessed the free medical outreach.
The tremendous success of this outreach gave sight of many beneficiaries of the outreach hope.
According to one of the beneficiaries who disclosed to the doctor during the exercise that lack of funds to get proper treatment made her to live with eye problem for over five years and was finally treated.
The exercise was a huge success with a team of optometrists and ophthalmologists led by Dr. Benedict Offor. Dr. Benedict Offor expressed his joy and fulfillment to have been privileged to serve humanity through Omereoha’s benevolence and encouraged him to keep up the good work.
Orieji is the Special Assistant Media and Publicity to High Chief Daniel Chimezie Okeke.
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