Zamfara Government has offered free eye surgery and treatment to 2,800 patients under its free eye surgery and treatment programme, the Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Alhaji Bello Dankande, has said.
Dankande disclosed this after inspecting the post operations exercise of the programme at the Eye Care Center of King Fahad Hospital, Gusau on Monday.
He said the state government engaged Visions Saver Eye Care Limited, an Eye Care Non-Governmental Organisation, to conduct the exercise, according to the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN.
The commissioner noted that the programme, being undertaken with the 14 local government councils of the state, targets 9,800 patients with various eye problems across the state.
“We noticed that many people, especially in rural areas suffer from various eye related diseases, but due to lack of financial support, they cannot go to hospitals for treatment.
“In each of the 14 local governments, we selected 700 people to benefit from this programme, 100 patients from each LGA will benefit from free eye surgery while the remaining 600 beneficiaries will be provided with medical classes and drugs.
“We are witnessing the post operation exercise of 2,800 patients who have been successfully discharged.
“The 2,800 beneficiaries we are discharging today are from Gusau, Bungudu, Maru and Tsafe LGAs.
“We are going to flag off similar exercise next Friday for beneficiaries from Zamfara East Senatorial district comprising, Birnin-Magaji, Kaura-Namoda, Shinkafi and Zurmi LGAs,’’ he said.
In his remarks, the Director of Visions Saver Eye Care Limited, Dr Kamal Umar commended the state government for engaging them to carry out the exercise.
“We have so far finished with 2,800 patients from Zamfara Central, we are going to continue with the remaining LGAs next Friday,” he said.
He thanked the state ministry of health, traditional rulers and beneficiaries for the support and cooperation given to the programme.
Umar urged the beneficiaries to comply with all instructions given to them as regards to maintaining their eyes during and after the exercise.
Earlier, the Officer in Charge of the state Eye Care Center, Dr Bello Mafara described the programme, said a lot of progress had been made in its implementation.
“We are recording progress in this programme, before opportunities like this, many people suffered from various eye diseases.
“Apart from eye surgery and treatment, this programme will also assist in creating awareness to the public on eye care and maintenance,” he said.
Malam Umar Muhammad and Hajiya Halima Gusau who spoke on behalf of the beneficiaries, thanked the state government for the gesture.