WA, May 19, GNA - A team of eighteen eye specialists, surgeons and technicians from Pakistan has organized an eye camp at Wa in the Upper West Region during which about 1,500 people were screened for various eye diseases.

The team performed surgical operations to remove cataract from about 150 sufferers and distributed bi-focal lenses and medicine to about 400 people to correct various eye defects during the three-day exercise.

The exercise which was under the auspices of Al- Basar International Foundation, a Saudi-Arabia sponsored Organization drew patronage from all parts of the region.

The exercise was very timely for the region because it had for the past one year been without an eye specialist to diagnose eye cases and perform surgeries. In an interview with the Ghana News Agency during the exercise, Dr Khalil Ahmed Lakho, Coordinator of the exercise, said the mission of the Foundation, which was established in Saudi Arabia in 1990, was to prevent blindness in poor countries of the world.

According to him most of these countries had inadequate trained medical personnel and equipment to reach out to their poor and vulnerable communities hence the need to assist them. He said about two million people in these countries had already been supplied with various eye care services and 150,000 others operated upon to remove cataract, which they had identified as being the major cause of blindness in the World.

Similar camps were held in Accra, Kumasi, Tamale and Wa as well as other West Africa countries including Niger, Benin and Togo.