The Rotary Club of Agege in Lagos on Sunday ended a two-day medical outreach for free eye screening, treatments and surgery for residents of the area.
Reports that hundreds of residents trooped to Powerline Primary Health Centre, Orile-Agege, to benefit from the medical outreach.
President of the club, Mr Biodun Bello, in his remarks during the exercise, said that 500 residents would benefit from the programme.
According to him, the programme was put in place for the community as one of the seven areas of focus of the club.
The project worths millions of naira, we started with screening the individuals to ascertain the problem, then proceed to provision of eye drops, glasses or surgery as the case may be.
The residents have long awaited the exercise because it is a yearly exercise where the Rotary Club embarks on humanitarian services to the community.
As Rotary Club, we ensure that residents are impacted with our humanitarian programmes stipulated in our goals and objectives worldwide.
As the case may be, we are targeting to distribute 200 free glasses or more, free eye drops and attend to other cases like glaucoma, cataract that relates to surgery,” Bello said.
Also, Mr Olufemi Erinle, the club’s Project Director, said that the programme was focusing on challenges related with the eyes because they are important part of the body.
Erinle added that both young and old in the community were benefitting from the free exercise as there was no age limit.
This programme is fantastic because anything that has to do with the eyes is very vital and we are targeting 500 residents or more as the may be.
Rotary Club is a service to humanity, it’s the contributions of intertional membersNYSC DG urges corps members to obey rules, be good ambassadors that we are using to carry out these kind of projects for free to the community,” he said.
Dr Fatai Oluyadi, the eye specialist in charge of the exercise, said he had carried out screening for quite number of people with eye related diseases.
“The programme entails screening first, then provision of eye drops and glasses immediately but for surgery cases, concerned individuals were listed for the surgery at a fixed date.
Some people need the glasses for both short and long sightedness, for readings and others.
“Cataract and glaucoma are two dangerous eye problems that need urgent detections, that’s why we are calling on individuals to continually go for eye tests before it becomes worse,” he said.
Mr Tela Sijuwomi, one of the beneficiaries, thanked the club for the kind gesture given to residents.
According to Sijuwomi, the free exercise has offered him the opportunity to conduct a test to ascertain the real problem affecting his eyes since four years.
I thank the club for giving me free glasses which allows me to see clearly without straining my eyes before reading,” he said.
Another beneficiary, Mr Bamigbade Gbenga, a civil servant, told our correspondent that the exercise was fantastic and well organised.
The club is so organised to the extent that many people were attended to accordingly without sentiments,” he said.
Also, Mrs Folasayo Alao commended the club for the remarkable gesture for people in the grassroots.
Alao said that she was booked for a free surgery to correct her eye problem.
“A date has not been fixed yet as many people will be involved but it has been concluded that I will definitely go for surgery for my eye problem.
I really want to thank the club for this opportunity given to me, because if I were to go to the general hospital, test alone would cost me much money not to talk of the surgery,” she said.