Ikeja Metro Lions Club organizes ‘walk against blindness’ to mark 2020 World Sight Day

Members of Ikeja Metro Lions Club in a group photograph with the District Governor, District 404B2, Nigeria, Lion Ademola Adesoye, and the Club President, Lion Evelyn Abosede Fashakin, at ‘Walk Against Blindness,’ organised to mark this year’s World Sight Day in Agege area of Lagos recently.

Ikeja Metro Lions Club under District 404B2 Nigeria of the Association of International Lions Clubs, as part of the advocacy programme of Association of International Lions Clubs, on Thursday  October 8, joined governments and other non-governmental agencies all over the world to mark this year’s World Sight Day.

As an activity to mark the day, the Club organized awareness walk titled ‘Walk Against Blindness at the Pencinema community of the Agege Local Government Area of Lagos State.

The walk which was aimed at sensitizing the public on the need to preserve and protect their eyes against the diseases that cause blindness started at the Pencinema under bridge, Agege and terminated at the Ancilla Catholic Eye Centre, on Odumosu Close, Ifako.

In an interview with our correspondent during the Club’s visit to the Ancilla Catholic Eyes Centre on Odumosu Close, Ifako, where the awareness walk terminated, the District Governor, District 404B2, Nigeria, Lion Ademola Adesoye, spoke on the reason for the ‘Walk Against Blindness’ as well as brief history of Word Sight Day.

According to him, today is World Sight Day. World Sight Day is marked all over the world today. So, being a World Sight Day, Lions all over the world always mark the day with awareness and enlightenment  action to sensitise the people on how to preserve their eyes as well as sponsor people with eyes problem for surgeries and this is what Ikeja Metro Lions Club is doing. The awareness walk started from the under bridge, Pen Cinema, Agege down to the Ancilla Catholic Eye Centre, on Odumosu Close, Ifako, where we are sponsoring a patient with cataract for surgery for the restoration sight.

“Ikeja Metro Lions Club is one of the clubs under District 404B2 Nigeria. We have about 76 clubs in the District and Ikeja Metro happens  to be the biggest with over 60 members and they are doing so perfectly well by organizing this programme. It should be known that every month we have one programme or the other to touch the lives of the people of our communities. This month is the month for eye sight and vision restoration and preservation awareness campaign.

“In marking this year’s World Sight Day, Ikeja Metro, as you can see is organizing awareness walk to sensitie the people on how they can protect and preserve their eyes and is also sponsoring a patient for Cataract  operation at Ancilla Eye Centre.

“As a District Governor, I was invited by the Club to come and flag-off the event. Other Lions Clubs are also doing the same thing at other locations in the country.
This month also at the district level, we are sponsoring many people with eyes problems for surgeries at Ado Ekiti to mark World Sight Day. We are also going to distribute 100 white  cain to 100 people with eye impairment to help them when they are walking. We are also organizing “Dinner in the Dark” – eating with people that cannot see and we that can see, will be blindfolded, trying to feel what they feel. The proramme is aimed at giving the blinds in our society a sense of belonging and also making them happy. It is also a way of bringing them together with the Lions to let them know the benefit of togetherness.”

Earlier speaking during the awareness walk, President, Ikeja Metro Lions Club, Lion Evelyn Abosede Fashakin, stressed the importance for preserving the eyes, describing the eyes as the light of the body, noting that without eyes other parts of the body are totally incapacitated.

While advising that concerted efforts should be made at preserving and protecting the eyes, she noted that early detection and timely intervention of any kind of eyes problem is very essential and charged everybody to avoid self medication but to always report any abnormality in their eyes to the eye doctor at the nearest hospital.

This year the World Sight Day with the theme ‘Hope In Sight” being observed across the world is considered as the most important advocacy and communications day in the eye health calendar. The day brought global attention to vision impairment and blindness.