The New Sight Eye Center (NSEC), one of the country’s premium eye healthcare service providers, has officially turned over the Liberia Government Hospital Regional Eye Center in the Port City of Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, to the Government of Liberia through the Ministry of Health.
The ceremony took place Tuesday of this week in the Arcelor Mittal Hospital Compound in suburb of Buchanan, attended by representatives of the Health Ministry, Lions Clubs of Liberia, and Arcelor Mittal, including local authorities, and the New Sight Eye Center, among others.
The Liberia Government Hospital Regional Eye Center is one of the two eye healthcare facilities that the Lions Clubs International Foundation has funded through the Lions Clubs of Liberia, and implemented by New Sight Eye Center (NSEC).
Representing Health Ministry authorities was the Assistant Health Minister for Preventive Services, Cuallau Jabbeh Howe, who vowed that the Ministry will support the Liberia Government Hospital Regional Eye Center in Buchanan, Grand Bassa County.
According to Minister Howe, the Ministry’s support is to ensure that the management and staff of the Center take ownership by maintaining it continues operations.
“I can assure you that the Ministry of Health is not what you thought the Ministry of Health was before. We have a commitment team not only to Monrovia but mother for all of the counties. So the Ministry’s support cut across all of the fifteen Counties of Liberia, when it comes to Health Ministry operations”, she states.
Minister Howe disclosed that the Ministry will assign an eye doctor at the Center to continue the functions of eye surgeon, Robert Dolo, who established the Center’s project, and urged its workforce for their cooperation, because working together they will always succeed in providing the needed results for patients seeking eye healthcare at that Center.
She also lauded the NSEC and Lions Clubs International Foundation and Lions Clubs of Liberia for their support to buttress the government’s national eye healthcare delivery drive.
Minister Howe, however: “Cautioned the workforce and the Grand Bassa County Health Team, the county authorities to take ownership of the Liberia Government Hospital Regional Eye Center, because I want to clear your apprehension, when we look at the global landscape there is donor fatigue and there is also limited funding coming externally, you must made that commitment before they even give you that money.
In so doing, they are preparing you to take over gradually to make sure because they, themselves, do not have money for their citizens”.
The Assistant Health Minister for Preventive Services noted that with this taking place, urged them to take total ownership of the Center to benefit other people who can access the facility to have their eye problems solved.
Also speaking, New Sight Eye Center Executive Director, Robert Dolo, pledged that NSEC will continue to build strong eye healthcare centers across the country to address the many eye problems the people are faced with in the country.
Mr. Dolo said the objective for this is to ensure that eye healthcare deliveries are accessible and affordable to the Liberian people and in the sub-region.
He dedicated: “The turning over the Liberia Government Hospital Regional Eye Center Regional Eye Center to the Health Ministry doesn’t means that NSEC is abandoning the Center but will also be around to provide some services to the Center when the need be, and that the collaboration with continue like we are doing at the Jackson F. Doe Memorial Regional Referral Hospital Eye Unit in Tappita District, Nimba County.
Marking remark on behalf of the Lions Clubs of Liberia, D. Sheba Browne, Lions Charge d’ Affairs District 403, A–2, Past President Greater Monrovia Lions Clubs, thanked and praised the New Sight Eye Center for successfully implementing project in Buchanan, noting: “ We are pride of Mr. Robert F. Dolo and his team for carrying on such a magnificent project”.
Speaking earlier, New Sight Eye Center Human Resource and Acting Project Manager, Philip Weh, disclosed that the initiative supported by Lions Clubs International Foundation through Lions Clubs of Liberia was to establish a functional secondary-level eye center.
Mr. Weh disclosed Center project proposal was initially developed by NSEC in 2014 and later approved by the Lions Clubs of Liberia and forwarded to Lions Clubs International Foundation in 2016 as a strategic public-private partnership between the Health Ministry and the NSEC.
He noted that following approval, implementation commenced in 2019 with the objectives to establish and equip a functional secondary-level eye care center, including human resource capacity through the training of specialized eye health personnel, and expanding outreach services to underserved communities across Liberia.
Mr. Weh: “Today, people across the region no longer need to travel distances or visit for occasional outreach missions to receive care. Instead, they have consistent access to routine eye examinations, preventive services, treatments, and life-changing surgical interventions within their own community”.
Meanwhile, several speakers in their brief remarks, expressed thanks and appreciation to the New Sight Eye Center (NSEC), and Lions Clubs International and Lions Clubs of Liberia for what they termed as a worthwhile venture that will go a long way in addressing the many eye problems, hundreds and thousands of people are facing throughout the country.