Sahara Group Aligns with the #MakeVisionCount Campaign

Martins Ifijeh

Seventy-five year-old Vincent Nkegbe is one of the beneficiaries of Sahara Foundation’s Eye Care Programme in Ghana.

Prior to Sahara’s intervention, Vincent was blind and had relied on his 70- year old best friend, Albert, to serve as his guide over five years. Albert sells building materials and could only attend to his business after supporting his friend. He typically spent all this time shuttling between his office and attending to Vincent.

Today, after Vincent’s Cataract Surgery intervention by Sahara Foundation in the Ashanti Region – which recorded 350 successful surgeries – he no longer requires guides to move around. For him, the freedom is priceless, while his friendship with Albert is even much stronger.

There’s something magical about the human eye. It stretches to accommodate the most exquisite and intricate images and yet, has the ability to refuse to see anything at all. But beyond the ability to see, the eye represents the window to illumination, emancipation and empowerment.

Today, 285 million people across the globe have no access to enjoying life through the beauty of the eyes according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). This is why Sahara Group embarks on interventions and sundry partnerships that promote opportunities for people to safeguard and improve their sight.

As the world marks World Sight Day, it is important for nations, the private sector and multilateral institutions to renew their commitment to raising public awareness of blindness and vision impairment as major international public health issues.

Of the approximately 285 million people worldwide that live with low vision and blindness, 39 million people are blind and 246 million have moderate or severe visual impairment. That 90 per cent of blind people live in low-income countries is an indication of a huge need for global collaboration towards eradicating poverty.

These collaborative efforts, among others, must be targeted towards educating target audiences about blindness prevention through elaborate campaigns that should focus more on indigent populations across the globe.

Sahara Group’s intervention programmes lend credence to WHO report that about 80 per cent of visual impairment is avoidable, that is, readily treatable and/or preventable. In addition, it is also a widely acknowledged fact that restoration of sight and blindness prevention strategies are among the most cost-effective interventions in health care.

With over 9,000 free eye screening interventions and 2,500 eye surgeries across West Africa, Sahara Group remains resolute in its commitment to stand with the #MakeVisionCount campaign as well as the overall ideals of the World Sight Day movement.