The original article can be found in: Antigua Observer By Kyle Christian
ST JOHN’S, Antigua – Affordable eye examinations and corrective lenses to every person who needs it: that is the goal of a new social programme, aspects of which were launched yesterday.
Through partnership with government, the Caribbean Council for the Blind (CCB) will implement one-month eye clinics throughout the nation. Clinics at Clarevue Psychiatric Hospital and the Fiennes Residence for the Elderly were officially opened yesterday.
“What we are doing here is really beginning to roll out to persons who have need, and persons who work with those persons, access to top eye heath services at the optometry and refractionary level,” said CEO of CCB Eye Care Caribbean Arvel Grant.
The two clinics will run for the month of February and see the 500 patients and staff of Clarevue and Fiennes screened for all major eye conditions.
Superintendent of Clarevue Clarence Pilgrim thanked the CCB for the clinic and said the hospital looks out for the holistic well-being of its patients.
“We think that a number of persons will benefit from these clinics,” he said. “We are very hopeful that it will capture those persons who have some need for medical assistance, and in addition to that, those persons who just want to know if their eyes are 20/20.”Edson Joseph, permanent secretary of the Ministry of Health, recalled the recent ‘Gift of Sight’ initiative by Sidewalk University, a similar eye care social programme in November. He too expressed gratitude to CCB for their assistance.
“There are many persons in Antigua & Barbuda who still have challenges in seeing,” he said. “Not only the challenge of sight, but they also have the challenge of financing the care that is required for them to have better sight.”
The clinics will be staffed by four refractionists from Antigua & Barbuda who will be working under the supervision of Dr Genalin Ang, head of Optometry Studies at the University of Guyana.
Vision centres will also be established at Gray’s Farm, Johnson’s Point, Clare Hall Clinics, All Saints, and the Hannah Thomas Hospital (Barbuda). Renovations at those centres are said to be about 80 per cent complete with over $200,000 worth of equipment installed.
The clinics are somewhat behind schedule as last October the CCB forecasted that vision centres would be up and running by the end of 2012.
CCB/Eye Care Caribbean’s mandate is to prevent blindness and visual impairment while restoring sight and creating opportunities for persons whose sight cannot be restored.
