In its efforts to strengthen the control of blindness and make easier access to eye services, the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center has donated Ophthalmic medical equipment to Albasar International Foundation (Makkah Specialist Eye Hospital Kano), to boost services rendered in the hospital.
With the donations, hope rises among the patients to get improved and effective service delivery as well as reduce medical tourism.
Speaking while making the donations, the Consul General of Saudi Arabia in Kano, Khalil Ahmad Aladmawy said the items were donated as part of its humanitarian services.
Aladmawy said the donations were meant to support the foundation in its blindness control program in Nigeria.
According to him, “I’m here to present gift from King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center to Albasar International Foundation (Makkah Specialist Eye Hospital). The donation is mainly humanitarian to assist the needy here in Nigeria, Kano in particular. Our humanitarian support is not only for Nigeria, it is all over the world and Nigeria is one of the over 30 countries that are benefitting from this gesture.
“The medical equipment been donated here today are rapidly needed in the cure of several eye diseases,” Aladmawy said.
Receiving the equipment, the Regional Director of the foundation, Dr. Mohieldin Abdalla Albadwi described the intervention as timely noting that it will go a long way to help in easing their job and achieving the target of controlling blindness in the country.
“Both Albasar and King Salman Center are working on humanitarian assistance to humanity. Albasar is working in the area of the eye to address problems related to blindness while King Salman is also doing that. In fact, this donation is part of their humanitarian assistance in the control of blindness across the world and Nigeria in particular. It will really help in the already successful effort we are making here in the control of blindness.
“This equipment came to us as timely and I’m very sure it will help immensely in easing our job and target of controlling blindness in the country.
“It will also add to our effort of ensuring that we offer our services to people at subsidised rate, as we are already doing as a humanitarian gesture. So we really appreciate them for this because we requested for it and they have answered our call,” Albadawi said.
While responding to questions by Journalists, the Regional Medical Director of the Foundation, Dr Hussam Balla revealed that the donated equipment includes an OCT machine, tenometre, Hand-held keratometre and Corneal topography machine, promising that they will be used judiciously to achieve the desired results.
“The gift is for the whole foundation but it is presented at the African Regional office that is here in Nigeria. So we will use them judiciously in controlling blindness and other eye-related diseases in Nigeria and other neighbouring countries.
“The equipment relate to testing machines for glaucoma and the rest for other diseases. So over the years, we have been using these machines, so our staff are already familiar with most of the machines. But at this center, we are always training and retraining our staff so that we can give our best to the society. So presently an engineer has come from abroad and he will train our staff on how best to make use of the machines.”
Albasar International Foundation Nigeria Region, which manages Makkah Specialist Eye Hospitals, is a non-Governmental Charitable Organisation working for the prevention of blindness with particular emphasis on Africa and Asia.
Established in 1990, Albasar International Foundation operates in three ways; Free Mobile Eye Services, the establishment of specialised eye hospitals, and training institutes.
However, from 2017 to 2021, the total number of OPD patients stood at 426,709 while 36,273 patients were operated on within the period.
The foundation presently has a total of twenty nine (29) eye hospitals across the world including those in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sudan, Philippines, Niger, Yemen and others.
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