By Moses Patience Chat
Hundreds of people from Rivers State’s Edeoha community in Ahoada East Local Government Area, and in Bayelsa State’s Onopa Community in Yenagoa Local Government Area have benefited from a free critical eye-care at the kick-off of “Vision First Initiative,” of Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) joint venture (JV) with Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, TotalEnergies, and Nigerian Agil Oil Company( NAOC).
This was disclosed in a statement issued to journalists on Sunday by Abimbola Essien-Nelson, the Media Relations Manager at SPDC.
The “Vision First Initiative,” is a community-focused eye care programme aimed at providing critical eye care services like surgeries, to hundreds of people in Rivers State’s Edeoha community and Bayelsa State’s Onopa Community.
According to SPDC’s Community Health Manager, Dr. Akin Fajola, Vision First is part of SPDC’s successful medical outreach from the Health-in-Motion initiative, which takes free medical services to communities across the Niger Delta. This time, the focus is on promoting healthy eye-care behaviour and helping people to eliminate and prevent visual impairment and childhood blindness in step with the World Health Organization’s (WHO) “Right to Sight” theme for 2023.
The event which took place at the Ahoada East venue had representatives from the Rivers State Department of Public Health present.
Dr. Seth Nzor, who was one of such representative noted that the programme is a critical one because it focuses on the first and most important organ of the body, which is the eye.
While giving his appreciation, the Chairman of Ahoada East Council of Traditional Rulers, King Felix Otuwarikpo, said; “Today is a happy day for my people and it won’t have been possible without the active collaboration of SPDC, who have come to our aid to address one of the critical challenges of the Upata Kingdom.
“We will not go the way of other communities. Our youths will not block offices nor attack pipelines. We have set a development agenda for 10 investments in 10 years for our community. Today, we are on the 6th investment. We will continue to create the right environment for your business. Bring more investments to our people.”
At the Onopa Community venue of the programme in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Pabara Newton Igwele, also expressed gratitude to SPDC for their continued support.
The Paramount Ruler of Onopa Community, King Tamama Morris, who was represented by the community secretary, Wongs Goodhead Alex, commended SPDC for its show of care to the community adding that the initiative will remove the burden on the people as they will no longer go to seek for medical attention elsewhere that which cause them extra fees.
He further pleaded with SPDC to make the “Vision First Initiative” a continuous exercise so that more people will benefit from it.