100 motherless children get free eye treatment

About 100 children at the Lekki Motherless Children's Home at the weekend, in Lagos, benefited from the free eye and dental screening organised by two non-governmental organisations (NGOs) ''Save a Sight Foundation and Golden Hearts Initiative, the NGOs involved in child care, rendered the free eye and dental screening services to all the children in the home.Mrs Angela Emuwa, Director, Golden Hearts Initiative, also announced a donation of N500,000 worth of malaria, fever, cough and cold medication to the home, to enable the children to stay healthy.Emuwa said that food and monetary donations were not enough for children with special needs, adding that people seemed to forget that the children needed to stay healthy before they could eat, drink and play.She said that the organisations, in collaboration with some dentists at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), decided to give free dental screening to the children.It also trained the care givers in the home to recognise when the children had teeth problems and how to help them.``Good health is just as important for these children as feeding, so it is necessary to provide medication as well to help them stay healthy,'' she said.Mrs Chioma Otolowe, Chairperson, Save a Sight Foundation, said that the organisation was part of the Nigerian Optometric Association and was dedicated to giving free eye screening to children who needed it.She said that eye screening was very essential, pointing out that no child could not learn without a good sight.Otolowe said that the children's eyes needed to be checked to identify problems.``We are checking the children's eyes to see if they need correction and also train the care givers on basic eye care to help them know how to detect when a child has eye defects,'' she said.She encouraged other NGOs to engage in such activities as providing for the less privileged, as part of their corporate social responsibility.The matron of the home, Mrs Aderonke Oguntoyinbo, urged other organisations to emulate the NGOs.
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