Al-Shifa Trust has been extending its reach into the nation’s outlying regions to combat the rising prevalence of eye diseases, many of which lead to irreversible blindness. In the past year, the trust has set up 500 camps in remote areas of the nation, a thirty per cent rise over the same period the year before, said Major General (Retd) Rehmat Khan, President of the Al-Shifa Trust.
During a media briefing, he said there had been 400 general eye screening camps, 40 school screening camps, and 55 surgical eye camps all over Pakistan during the outgoing year.
The primary sponsors of these camps included Qatar Charity, OGDCL, PPL, AFNA, and the Pakistan Army, while he added that the Rupani Foundation has also funded two eye camps. He said that the trust is conducting the largest outreach programme in the country, reaching out to the far-flung regions of Gawadar and Pasni and the impoverished districts of Gilgit-Baltistan.
He said that over a year, 550000 patients were treated in these camps, and thousands of low-income people had their vision restored. He added that a sizable number of these patients lacked the means to reach a hospital for treatment.
He noted that the Army’s cooperation with the trust was highly commendable; in numerous South and North Waziristan regions, they established food and lodging facilities and provided other essentials, enabling the locals to receive general eye care and surgical facilities.
He stressed that the trust is dedicated to battling blindness even though establishing surgical eye camps in certain rural places is tough due to various issues.
Major General (Retd) Rehmat Khan informed that more than 125,000 schoolchildren had their eyes screened for various eye conditions, and 6,000 of them received free glasses and that we consider a thirty per cent rise in the number of eye camps a great success.
Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital in Rawalpindi, Kohat, Sukkar, and Muzaffarabad received complex cases from the far-off areas, he said, adding that the trust began an outreach project in 1992 and that its free eye camps are established all over Pakistan.
Al-Shifa Centre for Community Ophthalmology is increasing the number of free eye camps in far-flung areas where the majority of the patients lack the resources to access quality healthcare on an annual basis.
He underlined that eye-related problems are increasing at an alarming pace; therefore, all public and private concerns should boost their efforts to combat this menace.
