Patients with eye problems waiting to see doctors at the Sydi Othman medical camp set up by RAF in Morocco.
Sheikh Thani bin Abdullah Foundation for Humanitarian Services (RAF) has begun implementing a massive health project at a cost of QR4m to fight blindness in 13 poor African countries.
More than 6,000 poor patients are expected to benefit from the project. They are being provided complete health services including treatments, surgeries and medicines.
The project will be completed within two years. Twenty-one medical camps are being set up to conduct eye tests on 4,000 patients. As per the plan, 400 patients will undergo eye surgeries. Patients will be provided 1,600 medical glasses and medicines.
Medical camps are being set up in 13 most deserving African countries for treating eye-related diseases. They are Nigeria, Mauritania, Eritrea, Sudan, Congo Zaire, Congo Brazzaville, Kenya, Morocco, Gambia, Burundi, Ivory Coast, Cameroon and Chad.
The project is financed by people from Qatar through donations. The medical camps are being run in collaboration with Al Basar International Foundation, an NGO working in the field of prevention of blindness.
RAF is waging a campaign against blindness and to save people from eye-related diseases especially from “white water” cataract. The project is also meant to provide treatments to eye patients from the weaker sections of the community so that they can come back to work and lead a normal life.
The project also creates awareness about eye diseases and covers maximum number of people in areas lacking basic health services.
“The project will help poor people suffering from eye-diseases that spread in many African countries,” said Dr Ziyad Al Suwaydan, from Al Basar International Foundation.
The project is very important because about 90 percent of patients with eye problems are from poor countries as per the statistics of World Health Organization (WHO).
Eighty-two percent of those suffering from blindness are aged 50 years and above. Cataract is the main reason for weakness of eyesight that leads to blindness in low and middle income countries as per WHO report.
