The people of Larteh and Tutu in the Akuapem North Municipality, are mostly farmers and traders and contribute immensely to Ghana’s food supply chain.
However, there is a rather disturbing trend in the communities. Children in the two towns have various forms of eye diseases.
The situation is affecting the development of the children, causing learning challenges and impacting teaching and learning.
Even more worrying is the fact that parents or guardians are not able to detect such eye defects at the early stages, and sometimes compounding the situation by using breast milk on the eyes.
Partnership
To mitigate the incidence and create awareness of eye diseases in order for them to seek prompt health care, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), Visio International, based in The Netherlands teamed up with the Department of Children under the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection and the Social Welfare Department.
For a start, the two institutions have engaged eye specialists from the Tetteh Quarshie Hospital at Akuapem Mampong to screen the eyes of the children.
The exercise which started last Wednesday at Larteh and Tutu screened 300 children from the two communities.
Emmanuel Nana Osei educating parents on how to take good care of their children eyes.
The NGO also decided to cater for the medical needs of the children with eye defects and provide eye glasses for those who needed them, relieving parents and guardians of the cost of treatment.
Visual impairment
During the screening exercise, the Acting Eastern Regional Director of the Department of Children, Emmanuel Nana Osei, stated that the exercise was to provide an opportunity for early detection and treatment of children with visual impairment, promote good eye health, create awareness of preventive eye care and encourage regular eye examination among children.
Mr Osei indicated that children whose impairments demanded surgical operations would also be taken care of.
He said apart from the screening and subsequent treatment of the children's eye defects at the hospital, the Visio would also provide soft loans for the parents to be able to cater for the other needs of their children.
Breast milk
Mr Osei cautioned mothers against putting breast milk on their children's eyes when they observed changes in the colour of the eyes.
An Eye Specialist at the Tetteh Quarshie Hospital, Dr Abena Adjei, who screened the children at Tutu, said although she detected a number of eye defects, the common ones were refractive error and allergic conjunctivitis.
Such eye defects, she stated, were common with children because children mostly played in the sand, and the soap of their parents used which caused such eye problems.
"Parents should always wash the hands of their children who come into contact with sand or soap to prevent them from contracting such diseases", Dr Abena Adjei told the gathering.
Dr Abena Adjei was happy that the NGO would be purchasing medicines prescribed for the treatment of the eye diseases detected in the children.
The eye specialist further advised parents and guardians to prevent their children from long screens time to prevent eye diseases, including myopia.
Beneficiary concerns
Two parents, Grace Anni Boatemaa and Adjei Johnson, expressed gratitude to the NGO and the Department of Children for coming to the rescue of their children.
They said the intervention of the two institutions had enabled them to know about the importance of early detection.
