Rotary Club undertakes eye screening, surgeries
The Rotary Club of Accra Ring Road Central, District 9100 and Icare Clinic, India, in partnership with Sight for Africa, has embarked on a free eye-screening and treatment exercise in Accra, dubbed 2012 MEDICARE PROJECT.
The Medicare Project, also known as Eye Camp which took off on May 15, 2012 and will end on June 10, 2012, intends to screen about 4,000 people with eye problems and perform about 50 surgeries within the Accra metropolis.
Basically, the exercise will involve eye screening, treatment and surgeries (Cataract and Glaucoma) to be performed by a medical team from India and their Ghanaian counterparts at the Sight for Africa Clinic in Darkuman, Accra.
It is the third of its kind to be undertaken in Ghana, with the first two carried out at the La General hospital, Accra and has since its inception screened over 5,000 people with eye problems and performed over 300 cataract and glaucoma surgeries.
Disclosing what motivated Rotary Club to undertake the project, Chairman of the Eye Camp, Rotarian PP Samuel Amponsah stated that Rotary’s service is to help mankind and that the vitality of any community depends on the health of the people.
He also revealed that “This is one of the numerous projects carried out by the club to alleviate the suffering of the underprivileged.”
For his part, Rotarian President Victor Asante in a statement during the launch of Medicare Project 2012 said “I believe strongly that at the end of the programme we will be proud people knowing that we have given relief and indeed sight to people who otherwise would have continued to suffer from curable eye diseases because of lack of funds to go to hospital.”
He thanked Dr. Shirish of Icare clinic, India, for committing his own resources and services to make the project happen because he believes in using his profession to give sight to people where he can.
Also expressing his gratefulness to Dr. Ghartey, Founder and President of Sight for Africa for agreeing to collaborate, he said, “Our partnership with Sight for Africa has not come at a better time than now because it has allowed us to improve on the planning and execution of the programme. We thank you very much and are very happy that we will continue to collaborate on other similar projects in the future.”
To benefit from the project, residents of the Accra Metropolis including children, are required to visit the Sight for Africa Clinic at Darkuman, a suburb of Accra, from May 15, 2012 to June 9th, from 9:00am -5:00pm each day for screening, while surgeries will be performed between 31st May to 9th June 2012.
Rotary International is the world’s first service club organisation with more than 1.2 million members who volunteer their time and talent to further the Rotary motto, Service above Self. Its members are also dedicated to providing community service to the underprivileged in the society.
By Edmund Smith-Asante