Joint Rotary cataract project benefits over 2,000 patients
Published on: Saturday, June 03, 2023
Text Size:
Fredolin of KPJ Specialist Hospital, leader of the trained cataract finders team, examining the eye sight of a patient.
Kota Kinabalu:Gift of Sight Sabah complements the Government’s initiatives to eliminate avoidable blindness for communities in Sabah especially those in rural areas.
The joint project by the Rotary Clubs (RC) in Sabah is continued with the Global Grant worth US$90,000 or about RM360,000.
RC Likas Bay made the grant application with RC Sandakan North as primary host while RC Changhwa Evergreen in Taichung, Taiwan (District 3462) is the international host.
The ten Rotary clubs in Sabah supporting the Global Grant joint project are Likas Bay, Kota Kinabalu, Tanjung Aru, Luyang, Kinabalu Sutera, Kota Kinabalu Pearl, Kota Kinabalu Mandarin, Sandakan, Sandakan North and Tawau.
ADVERTISEMENT
The Sabah chapter is being implemented in collaboration with Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Duchess of Kent Hospital Sandakan, Tawau, Lahad Datu Hospital, KPJ Specialist Hospital Kota Kinabalu, EyeMedics Specialist Eye Centre in Kota Kinabalu and Sabah Malaysia Medical Association.
The partnering government, private hospitals and eye specialist centres are providing surgeries while the Rotary Global Grant funding of US$90,000 is to provide intraocular lens for up to 1,000 cataract patients.
According to Past District Governor Philip Chong, who is the projects initiator and coordinator, said the Global Grant Gift of Sight Sabah 1.0 in 2017-2018 regained the eyesight of 1,009 Cataract patients.
“A series of cataract outreach camps (Kempen Hapuskan Katarak) under the grant organised by the seven (7) clubs are in Kota Kinabalu, Penampang, Kudat, Pitas, Kota Belud, Ranau, Lahad Datu and Tawau.
“To date, we have screened more than 2,000 cataract patients and over 600 lenses have been supplied to the Queen Elizabeth, Tawau and Lahad Datu Hospitals and EyeMedics,” he said.
ADVERTISEMENT
Philip said upcoming Cataract camps would be at Dewan Masyarakat Sook, Keningau scheduled on May 21, the Tawau Hospital-Mass Cataract Surgery Initiative (MCSI) June 12-14 and the Lahad Datu Hospital Cataract Carnival surgeries July 21-23 for 50 deserving patients.