SLRC provides assistance to Trinco displaced eye patients

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 March 2003, 19:28 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Red Cross (SLRC) Wednesday launched a special project 'Sight Restoration and Vision Correction Programme-2003' with the financial assistance of the UNHCR to provide specialized treatment to the displaced people in Trincomalee district who suffer from eye diseases, sources said.

Under this project the first batch of forty displaced men and women who needed immediate medical attention such as cataract operation were taken in a special bus Wednesday to Kandy by volunteers of the SLRC Trincomalee district branch, sources said.

They would be provided all facilities such as lodging, food and transport while undergoing treatment in Kandy. The Sri Lanka Eye Foundation is providing medical treatment to the displaced, SLRC sources said.

The Trincomalee district of the SLRC has launched this project as the Trincomalee general hospital has no medical equipments and other facilities in its eye clinic although an eye surgeon has been posted here recently, sources said.

Only the affluent could go to Kandy or Colombo to obtain better medical treatment for eye diseases at their expense. But the poor who are displaced and residing in welfare centres and refugee camps and elsewhere are not in a position to go outside Trincomalee district to obtain treatment for their eye diseases, sources said.

The SLRC sought the assistance of the UNHCR when hundreds of displaced who suffer from eye diseases approached Trincomalee district SLRC officials for help.

SLRC officials said every month about forty displaced who are affected by eye diseases will be taken to Kandy for specialized medical attention, sources said.

The SLRC has further taken steps to supply free eye glasses to poor displaced people affected by the war . Every month one hundred persons will be provided with free eye glasses after eye test, sources said.