News
Cataract: Vision 2020 offers free lenses, free surgery
View(s):The Health Ministry’s Vision 2020 charity unit is offering free cataract lenses and free operations to thousands of poor people who cannot afford them and therefore go blind.
At a media conference to mark World Sight Day where the theme was “the prevention and cure of cataract”, Vision 2020 Programme Director Dr. Asela Abeydheera said well-wishers, big and small, had given generous donations to help blind people to see the world through a simple cataract operation.
Now funds were running out and he made a fresh appeal to well-wishers to provide anything ranging from Rs. 3,500 to buy a cataract lens package.
The Vision 2020 on Friday also held a Right to Sight Walk around the Viharamahadevi Park and then to the Eye Hospital in Colombo. More than 400 people, including ophthalmologists, nurses and other Eye Hospital staff, opticians and others took part. According to Dr. Abeydheera, more than 39 million people are blind world wide and 285 million are having low vision. Some 80 per cent of blindness is avoidable. A majority of blind and people with low vision live in Third World countries with limited access to eye care. The principal cause of blindness is cataract, which affects 50 per cent of blind people.
In Sri Lanka, more than 200,00 people, including children, are blind with some 70 per cent of them going blind due to cataract.
Vision 2020 organises mass cataract operation programmes in Colombo and other districts, including remote areas where hundred or more patients are operated.
Dr. Abeydheera said individuals or groups could avoid some non-essential events or expenses and help give sight to 100 blind people.
He said cataract surgery needs an artificial lens to be implanted within the eye. This lens is expensive and is not usually provided by the hospital. Patients have to buy if from outside at a cost of between Rs. 20,000 and Rs. 30,000.
Dr. Abeydheera said Vision 2020 could buy a good quality lens for Rs. 3,500 and give it to the patient free of charge. The surgery is also done free of charge at public hospitals by eye surgeons who volunteer for this charity mission.
For details, contact Vision 2020 at 2693744.