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Monday, May 21, 2007 – As the country continues to hold activities
marking May as Blind Awareness Month, the island's Head of State is reminding of
the importance of regular eye check-ups as the best defence against becoming
blind.
Dame Pearlette Louisy, who is a Patron of the St. Lucia Blind Welfare
Association, said 80% of blindness is avoidable but that can only happen if St.
Lucians take the necessary responsibility to care for their own sight.
Month-long activities in May are being observed under the theme: “Taking
Responsibility For Your Sight”.
“If we do not take this responsibility, we will have a few challenges to
confront later down the line. Blindness, for example, has an enormous personal,
social and economic cost in that it limits the education and life choices of
otherwise healthy people and places a significant weight on family, community
and social health services,” she said.
Dame Pearlette said whereas many of the issues that causes blindness are
treatable, others are not that simple to anticipate, as in the case of those
ailments caused by disease.
“We now need to more aware of the corresponding high probability of contracting
diabetic eye disease, that group of eye problems that people with diabetes may
develop as a complication of the condition. Persons with diabetes in our midst
are therefore urged to take responsibility for their sight and make it their
business to get a dilated eye examination at least once a year,” Dame Pearlette
said.
The Governor General has placed an early call on parents and guardians to take
responsibility for the sight of their children or wards, as the international
community prepares to observe World Sight Day later this year under the theme
“Vision for children”.
“We want them to grow up with healthy eyes. We want everyone of them to go to
school. We are fortunate to have here the kids insight project, administered
jointly by the St. Lucia Blind Welfare Association and the Lions Club of St.
Lucia, and whose mission is to deal with serious paediatric problems . I
encourage you parents and guardians to take early action so that you can give
them a decent chance in life,” she said.
World Sight Day is an annual day of awareness held on the second Thursday of
October, which focuses attention on the problem of global blindness and vision
loss.
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