One hundred professional drivers have benefitted from Vision Awareness Campaign and free Eye screening and Treatment organised by Akure Professionals’ Lions Club .
This part of efforts to reduce auto crashes on the highways occasioned by poor vision of many drivers.
The drivers were drawn from the Ondo state government’s civil service.
They were treated free of charge by health officials brought by Akure Professionals’ Lions Club.
The exercise took place at the Head office of the Vehicle Inspection Services Department, VIO, in Akure
Ophthalmologists conducted eye test, administered drugs, presented eye glasses for some of the drivers while others undergone eye surgery.
The President of the Club, Lion Soladoye Ekundayo, said the programme was organised as part of humanitarian services of the Club, as everyone had a right to sight.
Ekundayo who is the immediate past Ondo state Chairman of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) lamented that about 4.5 million people were either blind or visually impaired in Nigeria while about 217 million were visually impaired around the globe.
“Majority of blindness are avoidable, but people still go blind, not because they have spiritual problems or under the spell of witchcraft, but because they cannot get simple surgery or treatment that could save their sight,” he opined.
The President said, “Akure professionals’ Lions Club, a non-govemmental organization, having realised the surge in avoidable blindness/visual impairment in this state especially among government employees, is organising this campaign to support the State Government to reduce blindness and visual long drivers.”
The Special Adviser to the state Governor on Transport, Barrister Tobi Ogunleye commended Akure Professionals’ Lions Club for organising the eye test and treatment.
He noted that the programme would go a long way in reducing accidents among government’s drivers in the state.
