By Benjamin Makafui Attipoe, Akatsi
Lifetime Wells Vision, an international charity Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) dedicated to ending preventable blindness and other vision impairments in Ghana, Nigeria and Tanzania, has ended its outreach eye screening and treatment programme in the Volta Region for the second half of the 2024 administrative year.
The gesture by the NGO to give sight to the thousands of the vulnerable across Ghana and beyond, has been successful in eleven (11) districts across the region under its motto, ‘Giving Sight to God’s People (GSGP), one person at a time. The beneficiary districts are Hohoe, South Tongu, Ketu North, North Tongu and Central Tongu with the rest being Ho, Keta, Anloga and Ketu South as well as Akatsi North and Akatsi South districts.
The outreach which began on Sunday, 28th July in the Hohoe Municipality, ended on Thursday, 10th October, 2024 in the Akatsi South Municipality.
The outreach programme was undertaken by a fourteen (14) member surgical and eye screening team drawn from various health facilities based on expertise, experience, dedication and passion for the initiative and course being embarked upon by the Founder, main Sponsor and Patron of the Lifetime Wells Vision, Mr. William Kenneth Wood, who after thirteen (13) years of drilling wells in Ghana, Nigeria and Tanzania, expanded his humanitarian efforts to ending preventable blindness in the three (3) respective countries and beyond.
Mr. Wood came to Ghana on 11th September, 2006 and started drilling boreholes from the then Ketu District of the Volta Region. In August, 2017, he added Eye Care to his humanitarian activities that expanded to Nigeria and Tanzania.
His target has always been the vulnerable, which is bringing eye care services closer to the people through a complete search for such unfortunate beneficiaries by the screening team of the mission.
According to the National Co-ordinator of the programme, Hon. Kofi Lawson, the team, which included Optometrists Ophthalmic Nurses, Opticians and some supporting health staff from health facilities in the various beneficiary districts, was under the leadership of a Consultant Ophthalmologist at the Tamale Teaching Hospital in the Northern Region, Dr. Seth Wanye. The team, he said successfully
collaborated with other stakeholders including the Friends Eye Centre based at Tamale to achieve this feet.
At the end of the outreach programme, the team assessed 19,309 persons, dispensed 16,761 eye drops to treat clients with various forms of eye ailments, gave out 3,225 medicated eye glasses for refractive remedies and also performed 1,731 successful eye surgeries in various health facilities in the region.
The visually impaired including the young and old, who were led to the theatre for the surgeries, walked back home on their own. At the Akatsi South Municipality outreach event at Akatsi for instance, some paediatric cases, that is three (3) children with cataracts, two (2) girls and one (1) boy had surgeries performed on their eyes. They were 8-year old Johnson Agbozo and 9-year old Emmanuella Zugah, both from Ave Dakpa in the Akatsi North district as well as 9-year old Atsu from Wlitey near Akatsi.
In the case of Emmanuella and Johnson, their eye situation which began from their childhood, had prevented them from attending school.
Their parents told our news team in separate interviews that a new dawn had arrived for them following the successful surgery on their children, assuring that they would ensure that the kids enrol in school as soon as possible so they can benefit from education which is key for development.
Speaking to our news team in an interview at Akatsi, Dr. Wanye described the outreach tour as very successful, saying he was extremely excited that the team was able to assist the three (3) children, two (2) of whom can now go to school for the first time in their lives and also as future leaders of the country.
He stressed the need for the members of the general public not only to visit the eye clinic twice a year to check on their eyes but also give the maximum protection to their eyes in whatever they do.
According to the Consultant Ophthalmologist, all and sundry should take advantage of the availability of eye clinics now at every district capital across the country to regularly check on and test their eyes for any corrective measure to be taken with respect to any defects detected.
Hon. Kofi Lawson on his part was grateful to Mr. William Kenneth Wood for his selfless and humanitarian work which had made this tour and outreach possible. He also thanked all the major stakeholders and donors, Members of Parliament (MPs), health facilities in the region and their staff, Christine and Harold as well as all supporting staff of the various health facilities for their support towards the success of the exercise.
The Country Director of the NGO, Ms. Christine Pomary noted that the mission of Lifetime Wells Vision in the country had impacted many Ghanaian lives across the country especially in the Northern and North East Regions as well as the Volta and Oti Regions. ‘In fact, some people did not even know that their problem could have been solved’, Ms. Pomary stated.
According to her, other partners with similar visions are welcome on board on this mission since government alone cannot take up all these responsibilities to the people or citizenry.
Madam Pomary was also grateful to the Visioneer and Founder of Lifetime Wells Vision who had to sell all his properties and stuff in support of all these thousands of poor and vulnerable in these typical rural areas of the beneficiary countries.
According to her, the selfless humanitarian service of Mr. William Kenneth Wood to mankind cannot be over-emphasized.
She stressed the need for all Ghanaians and the citizens of the beneficiary countries to continue to pray for Mr. Kenwood, his family and the NGO to continue to raise the needed resources to be able to touch more lives in the coming years.
