Red Cross trains eye care volunteers

The Northern Region branch of the Ghana Red Cross Society, has trained community volunteers at the Savelugu/Nanton Municipality, to help identify people with eye problems in their communities and refer them to hospitals for treatment.

About 30 volunteers selected from various communities in the municipality underwent the four-day training, at Gbanyeli, a suburb of Savelugu.

The newly trained Red Cross volunteers accompanied by eye nurses from the Ghana Health Service (GHS) put their skills to practice by visiting the Savelugu School for the Deaf to identify pupils with eye problems for screening and treatment.

The training concluded the eye care training for about 600 Red Cross volunteers in 11 districts including Bole, Nanumba North, Zabzugu, Yendi Municipality, and Tamale Metro.

It formed part of the Vision First Programme, a collaborative initiative amongst the Swiss Red Cross, Ghana Red Cross Society, GHS and the communities, with the aim to bring quality eye care services to the doorsteps of the poor.

Mr Abdul-Rahamani Yussif, Regional Manager of Ghana Red Cross said the training would also go a long way to reduce poverty since cases of dependency as a result of blindness would decrease.

He said the initiative would be sustained while creating awareness amongst communities to take up the challenge to voluntarily visit hospitals to seek eye care services.

He explained that under the initiative, the Ghana Red Cross bears the cost of treating patients, who have not subscribed to the National Health Insurance Scheme.

Mr Yussif also educated communities on Ebola and diarrhoea and distributed leaflets about the diseases.

Mr Ibrahim Abdul-Rahaman, a Volunteer from Pong-Tamale, who spoke on behalf of his colleagues, said the training equipped them with the skills to help identify cases of eye problems and refer them to hospitals for treatment.