By Christine Onwuachumba
Lagosians living in the Maryland surburb of Lagos benefited from a free eye-screening outreach tagged “Fight Against Preventable Blindness.” The programme, a tripartite effort by Anthony Simons Lions Club, The Edda Women Progressive Development Initiative and The Eye Foundation Hospital, Lagos, took place at Maryland, where no less than 200 people were screened with the aim of identifying patients with cataract who would subsequently undergo free surgery at the Eye Foundation Hospital while those with various eye conditions received free medication and reading glasses.
President of Simon Lions Club, Lion Victoria Edekemi said: “The cataract surgery at the Eye Foundation Hospital is free, fully paid for. So far, we have done 40 surgeries successfully. In this Lions Year, we have held screenings at Anthony Village, in Festac, and at the refugee camp for the less privileged and the homeless in Victoria Island.”
Paul Nwagala of Eye Foundation Hospital spoke of the over 10-year-old partnership thus: “We associate with Lions Club philosophy and objective to help the less privilege. Our hospital’s NGO, Eye Foundation Centre for Prevention of Blindness collaborates with various organisations, government and charities. On our own, we give back to communities as our Corporate Social Responsibity(CSR), and our objective is to extend quality eye care to the less privileged.”
According to him, over a thousand glasses, and over 500 eye drops, had been distributed free to beneficiaries in 10 years. Also, within the time span, the hospital performed over 500 surgeries with different Lions groups.
Mrs. Ngozi Ekunmankama, President, The Edda Women Progressive Development Initiative, considered the programme a worthy cause and the type her organisation embraces. “This is our first time of partnering with Lions Club because we are a new organisation. Our CAC certificate just came in the last week of May,” she declared, intimating further that while their immediate scope is women and child’s right advocacy, their charities are not in any way limited to projects within that scope.