With more than two million elementary pupils screened since 2006, the Sight for Kids Program of the Philippine Lions Clubs has become a cornerstone for children’s eye health. It has provided more than 40,000 prescription spectacles to children with errors of refraction all over the country.
In partnership with the Department of Health, the Department of Education, the National Committee on Sight Preservation, the Integrated Philippine Association of Optometrists, and Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, the Sight for Kids Program aims to curb errors of refraction, the number one cause of vision impairment. Uncorrected vision limits a child’s development.
The program also conducts lectures on proper eye health among teachers, students and parents, and refers children with eye diseases and abnormalities for appropriate management.
Last July, the program’s latest beneficiary was the Bagong Lipunan Elementary School in barangay Mabolo, Cebu City where more than 900 elementary students were screened for eye defects by the Cebu Lions Club, Cebu Magellan Lions Club and Cebu Doctors’ University–College of Optometry and in collaboration with the Lions Medical Eye Bank of the Philippines Foundation.
Twenty-nine students were found to have refractive error and were given prescription eyeglasses to correct the condition.
One student said she has finally gotten some relief from blurred vision and headaches.