10 Oct 2022

Pono Yame programme, which screens school children for eyesight problems and links those diagnosed to appropriate eye health services, has full government support,  President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi said in Gaborone yesterday.

  Dr Masisi, who was hosting a senior member of the British royal family, Sophie, Countess of Wessex said government, through the ministries of education and health, identified schoolchildren with vision challenges and offered them assistance. 

  The programme used research and evidence-based solutions from British eye health organisation Peek Vision, he noted.

Dr Masisi said the two ministries played a significant role in the process of early detection and intervention which would help Botswana attain the UN Sustainable Development Goals. 

Countess Sophie related her experience of visiting Molefe Primary School in Kopong earlier the same day  to see the programme in action.

She was accompanied by health  and education ministers Dr Edwin Dikoloti and Dr Douglas Letsholathebe respectively.

“I saw the huge involvement in the utilisation of the latest technology to screen and detect eyesight problems and to offer solutions thereof including tracking the treatment offered and its impact. 

I heard a young lady speak movingly about how the programme has been of benefit, and after the initial investment, we believe over time it will be heavily impactful,” she said. 

The countess,  who is the wife of Prince Edward, younger brother to King Charles III., said she would report back to her brother-in-law about her Botswana experience and the programme’s success.

President Masisi used the occasion to once more express heartfelt condolences to the British royal family and the people of the United Kingdom following the death of Queen Elizabeth II recently. 

He also asked Countess Sophie to convey Botswana’s congratulations and warm greetings to the new king.

The President recalled that during the June Commonwealth Heads of State and Government Meeting in Kigali, Rwanda, he had invited the then Prince Charles to visit Botswana. Ends