Rotary Eye Institute becomes India's one of the charitable institutions to set up a permanent eye care project in Nigeria

Rotary Eye Institute (REI), India's leading charitable institution has become instrumental in the country to have initiated the establishment of the 'permanent eye care project' in Nigeria to help the people in the African country in getting quality eye care services in the semi-urban and rural areas with the focus on preventable blindness.

The decision for setting up a permanent eye care project in Nigeria was taken after seven consecutive visits by the experts from REI under the banner of Indo Eyecare International (U.K) and Indo EyeCare Foundation.

According to REI, Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa. However, the eye care resources are very scarce and the people in the rural and semi-urban areas do not have quality eye care facilities. The prevalence of blindness in Nigeria is estimated to be about 0.78% with more than 1,000,000 adults being blind and another 3,000,000 being visually impaired.

About 42 adults out of every 1,000 aged above 40 years are blind and every two out of three Nigerians are blind due to the single most common cause of blindness, which is cataract. In Nigeria, blindness is almost three times more common in the dry northern area such as the Sahel than in the southern delta areas.

REI officials said more than 82% of blind are 50 years of age or older. Given the projected demographic changes and population growth in the recent future, the incidence of chronic, non-communicable diseases affecting eyesight is only expected to rise. Females, on the other hand, are at higher risk of being visually impaired because of inadequate access to eye care.

In 2005, REI, under the support of Rotary Foundation and guidance of N. G. Patel, organized its first free eye camp in Nigeria where more than 1200 patients were operated on for various eye diseases. It was this selfless act of community service that inspired the Indian business community residing in Nigeria to come together and establish a permanent eye care project for the people of Nigeria. Thus, Indo Eye Care Foundation was born.

Since 2005, Rotary Eye Institute has been regularly providing eye care services through free screening and surgical eye camps in Nigeria and Ghana. Till March 2018, REI had made a total of 13 visits to Nigeria. During these 13 visits, we have screened more than 1,75,000 patients, operated 15,155 patients, and distributed 18000 spectacles to needy patients.

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( With inputs from ANI )

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