Sightsavers Nigeria has advocated for deliberate and sustainable mentorship among health professionals to prevent gaps caused by the retirement of older civil servants.
The Country Director of the NGO, Dr. Joy Shu’abu, stated this during the flag-off ceremony of the SeeClear Nigeria Inclusive Eye Health Initiative in Kaduna.
Dr. Joy Shu’abu explained that the SeeClear Initiative, which will benefit individuals from Plateau, Sokoto, Zamfara, and Kaduna, is a three-year pilot program aimed at strengthening eye care service delivery in Nigeria.
‘for us at sightsaver,this is a critical moment especially in this Seeclear eye program which is expected to provide inclusive eye health services to communities that deserves the services.what we are going to put forward is providing services closest to the people at minimal cost’
‘one of the things we like to see is intentional and deliberate mentoring where younger health professionals are working alongside experienced ones so that when the matured civil servants exit from the service, the younger ones can succeed and sustain the work’, she said.
She stated that the initiative would also capture children and all categories of marginalised groups where surgery and the distribution of eye glasses would be provided for them to improve their eyesight.
The Country Director assured that they would also be doing advocacy visit to government to ensure that budget lines and policy are in place to ensure that the approved funding and the program structure are sustained.
Dr Joy Shu’abu reiterated that the Seeclear initiative would deploy technology to ensure efficient and effective eye care services.
She said sightsaver in collaboration with ministry of health and education alongside relevant stakeholders will train primary health workers and school teachers on eye care across the benefiting states which was in line with the national eye health policy
‘sightsavers are here to respond to the problems and offer support to different government,either through training and upgrading health facilities to improve climate resilience and environmental sustainability geared towards strengthening eye care service in the country’,she narrated.
In a remark, Plateau State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Nicholas Baamlong, praised the initiative, emphasizing that four state governments have embraced the program, recognizing the importance of sustainability.
Similarly, Representative of the Eye Health Care Committee in the North West, Abdulkadir Lawal Rafindadi, commended Sightsavers , stressing that the SeeClear project will reach grassroots communities where many people are unaware of such services
The flag off ceremony drew stakeholders from the health sector, school management committee under the ministry of education from across the four states of Zamfara, Sokoto , plateau and Kaduna whose sole mission was to strategies on how to effectively carry out the task.
Cov/Teddy Daniel
