More than 60 children in the Akatsi North District are said to have been diagnosed with serious eye problem a situation which is very worrying to the residents of the area.
Children from the ages of one cannot see and some have severe eye problems which have been left unattended to due to the high level of poverty as well as ignorance.
Two children from same family whose mothers spoke to Joy News said their children have been blind at the age of 3 and 5 months respectively and all efforts to make sure they regain their sight proved futile.
The Executive Director of the Young Heart Foundation, an NGO, Karim D Philips said as part of the their social responsibilities, they engage some health outreach programs and NGOs depending on what they have in hand at a particular time to reach out to communities that needs help in anyway especially the deprived communities in the countries.
According to Karim D Philips, it was sad to note that a lot of people especially children have severe untreated eye related problems that have left many of them blind a situation he said is alarming and that something urgent needs to be done about it to save children from going blind.
“It is really sad to see this beautiful children almost blind with no fault of there’s and something urgent should be done about the situation “ he said.
Karim Philips said the young heart foundation is doing its best to mobilize funds to cater for surgery for some of them and have called on the public and other NGOs to extend a helping hand to the district.
“ We are appealing to well meaning Ghanaians to come to the aid of the people in Akatsi North to save especially children from going blind “ Karim Appealed.
The Young Heart Foundation, funded in 2011 is an NGO in Ghana that promotes the rights of women, children and the vulnerable as well as the physically challenged
Matron for from the sight for Africa Mad Evelyn Ampedu said the situation is critical and needs urgent medical attention to correct the problem . She said her organization is also doing its best in helping in anyway they can
The former DCE for the district, Mr James Gunu said it’s a major challenge facing the district since they don’t have a district hospital to detect some of these problems in the district.
According him, the situation was detected by the district director of education hence the need to contact the NGOs to treat the people in the area.
Mr James Gunu has also appealed to the health directorate to do a survey in the district to know the total number of the people having eye problem so they can be treated early to avoid complications especially in children.
“We are appealing to the health directorate to carry a survey to detect the number of people suffering from eye related problems so they can be treated “ he pleaded.
He also appealed to government to upgrade health Centre to hospital status to solve some issue of this nature
Treatment
A total of One Hundred and Fourteen (114) participants were attended to. About Forty Eight (48) were children under 18 years while the remaining Sixty Six (66) were adult 19 years and above. Out of the Forty Eight (48) children, Eighteen (18) are boys while the remaining thirty (30) are girls. In addition, out of the Sixty Six (66) adult, Twenty Seven (27) were Male while Thirty Nine (39) were female.
Out of the One Hundred and Fourteen (114) participants tested, only Twenty Two (22) were not having eye problems while the remaining Ninety Two were suffering from various degrees of eye problems.
