As part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Niteo Limited and Optima Limited have conducted free eye screening and distributed glasses and medications to over 200 people in Lagos.

In a similar gesture, AIICO Insurance Plc has partnered with Indo-Eye Care Foundation to conduct free eye surgeries for 2,000 Nigerians this year.

Niteo and Optima embarked on the project to commemorate this year’s World Sight Day, which held recently with the theme ‘Love Your Eyes’.

At the event, which held in Oregun, Ikeja, one of the managing partners at Niteo Limited and Optima Limited, Dayo Afolabi, described the eye as an important aspect of human life.

“It is the gateway that we have to the external world and it is very important to take care of our eyes. That is why the world dedicated a day to talk about peoples’ sight.

“We enjoined Oregun residents to come for free eye screening and hopefully, some people have good eye sight and may not need glasses or medications to use but peradventure, that is not the case, it will be good for people to know and prevent it on time,” Afolabi said.

He listed some of the common problems associated with the eye to include refractive errors, such as myopia, hyperopia and astigmatism, explaining that another problem, age-related macular degeneration, which has to do with age.

“When people grow older, they cannot read small prints, which happens with old age, cataracts, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma etc,” he added.

Afolabi enjoined Nigerians to take care of their eyes by going for regular screening, stressing that with that they would be able to know if there is any problem with it and the right solutions could be applied in time.

“If in time past some people in your family had glaucoma, the likelihood that somebody in that lineage will have glaucoma may be high. So, people should do screening, which will help them detect these issues early enough and then correct it,” he said.

He advised Nigerians, who are always on the computer, phone or television to learn to give their eyes some rest.

One of the beneficiaries, Mrs. Felicia Ubani, who received an eye glass after the screening exercise, praised the organisers for their magnanimity.

“I feel very good for the opportunity of participating in this free eye screening. I was taught a lot of things, which I didn’t know initially. I am going to use the eye glass given to me, as it will correct my sight. I commend the organisers for this kind of programme as it has offered the less privileged the opportunity to screen their eyes and receive medications,” she said.

Indo-Eye Care Foundation has since 2007 made it an annual event to conduct between 2,000 and 2,500 eye surgeries free of charge.

Speaking at the 2022 Sharad Purnima Dandiya event in Lagos recently, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of AIICO Insurance Plc, Babatunde Fajemirokun, said his insurance firm offered to assist the less privileged to regain their sight through the support it gave to the foundation.

Fajemirokun, who was represented by the Communication Manager of the firm, Mr. Ademola Adenekan, said the gesture was part of the firm’s CSR to the communities and humanity, promising that AIICO would continue to assist the less privileged and Foundations like Indo-Eye Care.

According to him, the management of the underwriting firm was happy that through its gesture, more blind people could regain their sight back.

Earlier at the event, the president of the Gujarati Samaj, Mr. Tanna Shailesh, disclosed that through the Foundation, doctors from India have been able to perform 25,000 eye surgeries at the Marina General Hospital as of 2021.