Austrian ‘eye saviours’ in South Tongu

By Nii Kwaku Osabutey ANNY, kwaku.anny@dailyexpressonline.com

Dr. Elfriede Stroh-Rogl covers the left eye of 14 year old Grace Ativor with her left hand, and draws attention to the letters on a white plastic card to help determine whether eye sights are good.

“Tell me what you can see here,” she points to the plastic card. Slowly she takes Grace through the processs till she’s able to complete it. She then hands her a present and called for the next person to come.

Grace jumps up with her present in hand while her other friends run after her. A class three pupil at the Gamenu primary school in the South Tongu District of the Volta Region, Grace and her colleagues are beneficiaries of a free eye screening exercise undertaken by an Austrian NGO ‘Augenblicke Eye Care 4 Ghana’, which is led by Dr. Stroh-Rogl.

Gamenu is a small and sleepy town stashed somewhere in the South Tongu District of the Volta Region. The village is far removed from any of the major towns. Vehicles trek to the place once in hours. The village has a clinic they labored to have built together with a nurse’s quarters, but since 1998 no medical staff has been posted there, leaving them to trek for health care.

The town’s primary school is a complete reflection of the economic deprivation of the village-pupils are housed in an uncompleted building, untarred floor, weak benches and the roofing is made of palm fronds, making it easy for classes to be abandoned anytime the rains threaten.

The lack of proper medical facility means that anyone with serious health conditions including eye defect could loose their sight. And in the course of the exercise one pupil was said to be living with a cataract in one of her eyes. She is virtulally unaware of her condition which has the potential of throwing her entire life into complete darkness. But the exercise gave her condition up.

“She will be sent to the district hospital tomorrow for operation,” Dr. Stroh-Rogl tells the dailyEXPRESS. According to her some of the pupils have problems that require that they use eye drops to clear their sight but that is not happening. She is therefore excited that her team could take the opportunity to come to the school and screen the pupils to correct their eye situation.

She tells the dailyEXPRESS the organisation has been visiting Ghana over the last three years offering free eye care examination and treatment to the people of the South Tongu District and adjoining areas at no cost. They spend days at the Sogakope district hospital to screen and treat hundreds of patients, with assistance from the hospital staff and eye specialists from the Korle bu hospital.

Their visits have been facilitated by the Austrian Consulate in Accra headed by Her Excellency Ingeborg Anna Smith, the Honorary Consul of Austria to Ghana.

“We are happy to be doing such a progamme because these people are very friendly and warm,” one of her colleagues says.

Dr. Elfriede Stroh-Rogl says apart from the free eye screening those with serious eye defects and need to be operated upon are treated freely. She said the Austrain based organisation also trains some of the local nurses at the hospital to enable them handle some of the eye cases that would be reported at the hospital.

“The programme is for a whole year and should go on even in our absence.”

As part of their visit to Gamenu, the ‘Augenblicke Eye Care 4 Ghana’ fulfilled a promise made last year to construct a three-block classroom for the lower primary of the Gamenu Primary School. They presented GH¢14,000 to the community and cut the sod for the construction of the new block.

Togbui Kowu Adzowe VII, who is the Awadada (War Lord) of the Agave Traditional Area, received the funds on behalf of the community and Agave State. He thanked the team for their support to the community and the traditional area, acknowledging that their eye operations and training of the Sogakope hospital staff is highly appreciated.

The head teacher of the primary school, the assemblyman for the area and the elders of the Gamenu Community also expressed their appreciation to the Dr. Elfriede Stroh-Rogl and her team.

The leader of the team was confident that once the classroom block is completed pupils would get the opportunity to study in a much more convenient and clean environment, reducing the potential health hazards like eye infection that the pupils might be exposed to.