12 Oct 2014

Kgosi Letlaamoreng II of Barolong has urged Batswana to keep visiting hospitals to test for various diseases.

Speaking at a world sight day in Good Hope clinic Kgosi Lotlaamoreng said some people are born with eye disorders that lead to blindness. 

Kgosi Letlaamoreng gave an example of Annafiki Ditau, a celebrated artiste living with blindness but doing a considerable amount of work, a remarkable talent in piano tuning.  He said routine eye examinations were important regardless of an individual´s age or physical health.

The assistant commissioner of South Division Mr Victor Mabina said the world sight day was an international annual event focusing on the problem of global blindness and visual impairment. He said the event is celebrated every year second Thursday of October.

Mr Mabina said that the commemoration was organised under the vision 2020 “The right to sight” initiative which aims at eliminating blindness. 

He said that the visually impaired people are likely to increase due to ageing of world population and life expectancy.

Another guest speaker of the event Ms Alice Lehasa of National Prevention of Blindness Coordinator said the Ministry of Health formulated the programme to coordinate ophthalmic services nationally. 

She said vision 2020’s major disease priorities are cataract, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, childhood blindness and low vision.

Vice president of Botswana Eye Care Providers Society, Ms Chatawana Molao noted the facts about the magnitude of blindness. She said blindness is a serious public health issue affecting everyone locally, regionally and globally. 

Ms Molao added that community participation is one of the pillars of vision 2020. “We worked together with Addenbrookes hospital from abroad to offer free eye services to the public,” she said. 

She explained that they managed to donate frames and spectacles for refractive errors to the needy. 

She also said Standard chartered bank played a vital role by donating two microscopes to northern and southern regions respectively, and the screening activities were conducted around Botswana since then.

In conclusion Ms Deborah Motsienyane, the assistant coordinator for National Prevention of Blindness explained that the day before World Sight Day, they screened 317 people from Good Hope only and 180 of them had reading problems and were given free reading spectacles.

She added that 20 people had short sight and were to be ophthalmic in Good Hope whereas 19 had cataracts and were booked for surgery in Scottish hospital. 

Six people had glaucoma and were already on treatment, others had normal eyes.  ENDS