Bus drivers benefit from eye screening

Blind Persons Need Empathy, Not Your Money- Akande

As part of activities commemorating White Cane Day, Federal Nigeria Society for the Blind (FNSB), Lagos, yesterday, performed eyes screening for over 100 commercial bus drivers and other citizens in Ojuelegba, Lagos.

White Cane Day is marked yearly to serve as a reminder of the essential humanity of visually impaired persons and ensure the public support them to live independent, happy and meaningful lives, while giving back to their communities.

Speaking at the programme, Chairman, White Cane Safety Day committee and council member of FNSB, Yinka Akande, said bringing the screening to motor park is very strategic, as a number of blind students have problem boarding busses because drivers and conductors are not sympathetic towards their cause.

Advising the public, he said, “when you accost a blind man, don’t look at him as a lesser member of the society, you have to understand that everyone have their own talent that God has embedded in us, the fact that a person is blind does not mean they are any less a human being so, we should accord them their humanity and we should also assist them.

They are not asking for financial assistance, they are only asking for assistance in terms of orientation so, they will make their migration very easy. Blindness can come to any person at any time, most of them were not born blind but went blind later in life, it could be as a result of not treating glaucoma well. They need your empathy, they need you to accommodate them, they don’t need your money.

So, we are calling for equal respect to the visually challenged persons as they would to any other members of the society. So, we are telling people to give them an inclusive society.

“The eye screening is targeted at the drivers, because many of them also have failing eyesight without knowing,” he said. He called for equal respect for the visually challenged persons, as they would to other members of the society.

Akande, who led students on a walk from the National Stadium, Surulere to Ojuelegba, called on the National Assembly to pass the disability law.

Chief Olu Falomo, a trustee, said: “Everywhere in the world, the government champions this cause, but it is a different thing here. Go to Ghana, everybody there knows what to do when they see a blind person.”