Day of the African Child: MICEI offers free eye consultations for children to boost education efforts.

The initiative of the specialised ophthalmology hospital, located at Obak, along the Yaounde-Okola road, is in commemoration of the Day of the African Child observed every June 16.

The day was celebrated under the theme: "Ensuring universal access to water, sanitation and hygiene for every child in Africa”.

Through the free eye screening and consultation, MICEI is reaffirming its commitment to ensuring that sight, which is essential for learning and everyday life, is never a barrier to quality education.

Noting that the June 16 honours the courage of the schoolchildren of Soweto- South Africa on June 16, 1976, who stood up against poor‑quality education and demanded to learn in their own languages, MICEI’s Chief Executive Officer, CEO, Dr Henry Nkumbe, highlighted that every child has the right to universal eye health so they can thrive. 

“There is a very strong link between quality education and visual health because a child who can't see well, can't perform well in school,” the vitreo-retinal surgeon said. 

He also added that: “We are contributing towards ensuring that the sacrifices that these children made 50 years ago were not in vain because back then they were focusing on education, but now we are aware of a very important ingredient in quality education, which is quality visual health”. 

MICEI joins force with Forest Children

The free consultation for children aged 18 years and below coincided with the International Business, SMEs and Partnership Exhibition Fair dubbed PROMOTE hosted at the premises of the Yaounde Conference Centre. 

In line with this, MICEI joined forces with those of the Forest Children, an environmental conservation and cultural preservation group, to help advocate the message of pediatric ophthalmology.

The Forest Children made a special appearance at the Magrabi ICO Cameroon Eye Institute stands at PROMOTE on Monday June 15.

MICEI boss also affirmed that the special children group is an import vessel to drive across such essential message to the next generations   

“Whatever we do today, whether positive or negative, will have an impact on the world they are going to live in tomorrow. So there is no better way than to have them involved in sharing the message on the importance of protecting the environment,” the health specialist added.  

Opportunity to sensitize public

Quizzed earlier on the motives of the presence at PROMOTE, Dr Nkumbe explained that the exhibition fair, is a unique platform that brings together entrepreneurs and businesses and the general public, those providing an avenue for mass sensitization of the importance of eye healthcare.

“There will be companies, entrepreneurs and public, to sensitise them on eye health, the need for people to take good care of their eyes, and the need for companies to take good care of the visual health of their employees because it is known that employees who have poor visual health, their productivity drops,” he said.