LIRA– The Overseas Pakistani Global Foundation Africa [OPGF] early this week launched a free eye surgery camp in the Lango Sub-region.
The camp, which also includes eye checkups and the donation of free glasses and expected to benefit about 1,000 people with eye complications, was launched by the Minister of Health Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng at Lira Regional Referral Hospital.
Dr. Aceng lauded the Pakistani community for organising the camp and asked them to come back again in December, saying there is a high demand for the service.
“In December 2021 you worked on a big number of patients but you left a backlog of cases. I am glad that you have come back to work on them,” she said.
She said as the ministry, they were grateful for the collaboration with the Pakistani community, praying that it should continue for the benefit of the community.
“I met them in my office and we had a very good discussion but I want to encourage them to bring in more Ophthalmologists because three of them cannot run such a camp that has a big number of patients,” she added.
She suggested that if they could bring like six or 10 ophthalmologists, they would be able to work on 5,000 patients within a short time.
“My appeal is that you increase the number of ophthalmologists because the number of people with the burden of eye defects is still very high. It cannot be handled in one day but over a period of time,” she said.
The Pakistani High Commissioner to Uganda, Hassan Wazir commended the cordial bilateral relations between the two countries.
According to OPGF President, Sikandar Cheema the free service will be extended to Arua.
He said they have conducted a similar camp in Nsambya Police Clinic as they target to work on over 3000 eye patients across the country.
The team, according to Dr. Boshail Ahmad who heads the doctors and eye specialists, is providing complete eye checkups, cataract surgery as well as providing reading glasses.
Statistics by the Ministry of Health reveal that 2.5 million Ugandans had both moderate and severe eye-related impairments and approximately 150,000 are completely blind.
Ateeq Muhammad, the Pakistani President in the Lango Sub-region said the team would handle the backlog of cases including working on new cases.
He called upon people with eye-related complications to take advantage of the experts to have their eyes checked.
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