‘I can see better now, before I used to have headaches’ – relieved recipient of spectacles

Some 97 residents of St. Cuthbert’s Mission, on Friday received spectacles through the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security’s Eye Care initiative, among them Osha Shuman, who related that she lost her spectacles and was unable to replace them due to lack of finances.

She expressed relief after receiving her free pair from the ministry, “I feel good, very excited because I can see better now and before I used to have a lot of headaches without my glasses.”

Britney Moonsammy commended the initiative, as she related that this is her first time wearing spectacles.

“I think it is a wonderful idea because it saves people in the community the finance from going out there to spend money. And so, it’s amazing for them to come and give us glasses.”

Another recipient, Avnel Simon expressed, “I thank the minister for this spectacle because I never go out to do eye test. I did it right here at the health centre. Everybody can’t afford to go out so when they came at the health centre, everybody got the opportunity to get their spectacles.”

The Eye Care programme commenced last year and has since saw the distribution of over 2,000 spectacles in remote communities across the country, free of cost.

Human Services and Social Security Minister, Dr Vindhya Persaud said the programme targets children and vulnerable groups.

“We are coming to the end of ‘Eye Care’ 2022, and that involves our collaboration with various optical centres. Where we take these entities in various communities where ordinarily they don’t have access to tested glasses and this has been going so well. Our heavy focus would’ve been on children, the elderly and single parent homes. And today in St. Cuthbert’s Mission where we have taken this initiative for the first time, I can see the sense of excitement among the people. And we saw the number of children that really made me happy and I know once they can see well in school they can perform better,” the minister related.

She said the distribution exercise in the community is one of the largest since the programme’s launch.

Minister Persaud noted that the initiative plays an integral role in the transformation of communities. 

“I think this initiative has been doing a lot of transformation in communities and I have no doubt that here we will see that level of transformation whether it is work, school or doing regular everyday chores. And we have managed to serve communities in every region with this initiative and we will continue to do this next year because I feel that we can see the difference that we are making in people’s lives and we will continue to serve humbly and we commit to the kind of efficient, effective service that we are doing in these areas.”

In addition, the ministry is organising a special eyecare initiative dubbed “Eye Care Christmas 2022”, which is set to be launched shortly.