Kwara gov’s wife advocates law to enforce checking of kids eyes before school enrolment

Wife of Kwara State governor, Mrs Omolewa Ahmed, has advocated a law that will enforce compulsory vision screening for children before enrollment in government schools.

Mrs Ahmed made the call during her visit to the Centre Igboro Children Specialist Hospital, Ilorin to influence immunisation on children, as well as vision screening.

She stated that under the proposed law, ministries in the state would be made to key into the programme of vision screening for children in Kwara State to prevent blindness.

Ahmed, who is the  founder of Life Empowers Anchors Hope (LEAH), encouraged mothers to take children to immunisation centres and also undergo vision screening as it is free.

“Vision is important and we must ensure that out of negligence or ignorance, our children are not exposed to blindness when we can take them for screening and get help,” she added.

She said that some of the cases of blindness were avoidable, adding that a child that is blind at tender age will not have a qualitative life.

She further said that  over 200 blind citizens were recently empowered, where a cheque of N150,000 each was given to them.

Speaking earlier, Professor Dupe Ademola-Popoola, an ophtalmologist with the University of Ilorin Teaching Hosital (UITH), explained that the state government had enacted law that makes vision screening compulsory for children from zero to five years.

She said that due to the effort of the state government, the United States Agency for International  Development (USAID) has shown interest in the project where they donated some equipment worth thousands of dollars.

She pointed out that a survey of 100 blind people carried out in the state suggested that seven out of 10 were blind from childhood.