Nigerians have been urged to take proper care of their sight to avoid blindness.

The Lions International Club, District 404A3, who advised while celebrating World Sight Day (WSD) themed: “Children love your sight” said carrying out early check-ups on the eyes can lead to healthy sight.

According to the District Governor, Dr Folasade Shotomide, early checks on the eyes can help with any detection, and help the child to perform optimally, noting that poor sight can lead to failure in school.

She said once a child fails due to lack of sight doesn’t mean the child is not intelligent, but because the child can barely see the board, or can follow through in the book, what he or she is expected to do.

Her words: “Your sight is as important as every other part of our body. The moment one’s sight is lost, it gives challenges to life. It impairs everything that you want to do. Even if somebody is crippled, he can still go miles.

“You can go a distance; you can achieve a lot more than when the eyes are no longer. It is our responsibility to take care of our eyes, and make sure we do regular checkups.”

The first Vice District Governor, Mrs Mary Onu, said sight is everything, sight is vision, sight is the future.

“Everyone needs to have their eyes to do everything, that’s not to say that when there’s no sight there’s no life, because we also do have people who have no sight but have great lives.

“Early detection is key, once eye issues are discovered on time, it’s easy to put interventions in and the children can get sight-corrected surgery where necessary, and medication. However, when the conditions are left to linger, it leads to blindness.”

A Consultant Ophthalmologist and chairperson, District 404A3 Vision Committee, Dr Abiola Oyeleye, said children spend a long time on the television screen, lamenting that their eyes are strained. “We have to educate the children and the parents that they shouldn’t be on the screen for a long time.

“In the world now, a lot of people are short-sighted people, people who are used to doing things at close distance and the factor responsible for that is that children and adults always look at telephones or screens close to them all the time.

“Another fact is that they are not exposed to sunlight as much as they should be. Because it’s been proven without a doubt that being exposed to sunlight helps in the development of the eyes,” Oyeleye said.

He disclosed that the club plans to conduct vision corridors. He explained that vision corridors are situations whereby within the school, the vision of a child can be checked without a professional being there.