By Omoregie Elvis, Benin
The Edo State Governor, Mr Godwin Obaseki has assured the Nigeria
Optometrics Association that his administration will work closely with
them to ensure that children between the ages of 1-6 are provided with
free eye care.
The Governor dropped this hint during the opening ceremony of the 41st
annual National conference of the Nigeria Optometrics Association held
in Benin.
He said that the theme for the conference was very important being
that eye sight problem is one of the rampant all over the world and,
therefore an indication of major health care issues.
Obaseki noted that Edo State takes health care very seriously and as
such have adopted strategies to deal with health care issues.
The strategies according to the governor included, the domestication
of the National Health care scheme, state health insurance
arrangement, and focus on primary health care .
He charged the association to step up their game in eye care services
and, also called on other stakeholders to join hands to achieve a
better eye health.
In his speech, the president of the association, Dr. Damian Echendu
noted that the time is now for all to unite in providing the necessary
support required to meet the World Health Organisation and
International Agency for prevention of blindness target of reducing
the prevalence of avoidable visual impairment by 25 percent by the
year 2019.
The Edo State chairman of the association, Dr. Michael Nwoko said that
the conference creates an opportunity for Optometrists all over the
country and beyond to come together with common vision in line the
overall objectives of the association as well as channel out partways
in which the proffesion can be effectively strengthened to guarantee
visual welfare of the public.