The operations will be done at the Sekuru Kaguvi Eye Unit at Parirenyatwa Hospital by a group of local ophthalmologists and optometrists.
“We expect 150 operations to be performed on the 22nd and 26th of August,” said Clever Mugadza, the chairperson of the Sight First — Lions Club of Harare.
He said beneficiaries of the annual project were “usually the elderly underprivileged persons in our communities.”
The major aim of the project is to help disadvantaged people eliminate preventable blindness and visual impairment.
Eye cataract operations cost between US$800 and US$1 500 at private hospitals and trying to have the procedure at public institutions means a long wait as the institutions are always overwhelmed.
Cataract surgery involves the removal of the natural lens of the eye that has developed an opacification, which is referred to as the cataract. The Lions Club says it sourced this year’s Eye Camp kits from Aurola and Madurai, India.
Published clinic and hospital data, population-based surveys and World Health Organisation estimates indicate that 1,2% of Africa’s population is blind and that cataracts cause 36% of the blindness.
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According to the Operation Eye Sight Universal, Africa has the second highest burden of blindness and vision impairment in the world.
While it has only 11% of the world’s population, Africa is home to approximately 19% of the world’s blind population.
Mugadza said the Lions Club of Harare West had so far carried out 2 500 operations under the Eye Sight programme.
The programme has improved vision care for thousands of people by providing cataract surgeries, screening, medication, treatment and community education to prevent blindness.
