PREMIER'S ADDRESS
Programme Director
MEC for Health Sibongile Manana
Mayors and councillors present here today
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen.
YOU HEARD that YESTERDAY was WORLD SIGHT DAY.
And you were told that it is an annual event held to focus attention on the problem of global blindness.
World Sight Day aims to raise awareness that 80 per cent of blindness could be prevented or cured.
It is also held to encourage governments, corporations and other funding sources to invest in global blindness prevention. The world's blind is expected to climb to 72 million by 2020.
According to the World Health Organisation, in addition to the world's 45 million blind, another 135 million suffer low vision. That is why it is important that we combat the tragedy of avoidable blindness, while at the same time helping those who are already blind.
The South African National Council for the Blind tells us that in this country more than 160 000 people are needlessly blind due to cataract. And in Mpumalanga Province there are more than 17 000 blind people. More than 10 300 of these are blind due to cataract.
Let us pause for a moment and think about what losing one's sight really means. And as I say, all we can do is imagine. Those of us who are sighted will never be able to really say what it means being blind.
Remember eyesight means freedom, work, safety and survival. On the other hand blindness may mean poverty, neglect and early death. How many blind people are outcasts in the very communities where they live?
How many are resented by those who are supposed to guide them?
Indeed blindness is a personal tragedy and it can also spell economic disaster for the entire family. Men and women have difficulty obtaining any work once their vision begins to fail. And mothers and fathers may have problems cooking for their family and providing for their children.
The sighted children may be needed to escort the blind adults around and therefore miss the opportunity of school and education. Those who are poor and blind are prevented by their circumstances from getting treatment for their eye diseases. The result is that the loss of sight and blindness lead to greater poverty, creating a vicious cycle. That's what blindness means.
But as government we did not sit back and say because we have this type of situation, there is nothing we can do.
When we spoke in the Legislature in February this year I told you that the government that I lead and on whose behalf I speak here today, had adopted Primary Health Care as the main strategy for developing and promoting the health and well-being of the people of this province.
We promised to bring health care closer to our communities, ensuring an equitable distribution of resources and encourage individuals to fully participate in decision-making and responsibility of their own health care
Believe me when I say that is still our primary objective. And we have gone a long way in fulfilling the promises we made in that august house.
Today more pregnant women in the province now have access to maternal health through the clinics we built in deep rural areas like Mmamehlake, Lefiso, Kabokweni, Phake, Verena and Daggakraal.
A number of health centres have been built or are under construction in many parts of this province. We are dealing successfully with the issue of HIV/AIDS and TB.
As government we are aware that the impact of these diseases is exacerbated by the high rate of poverty and illiteracy in the province.
Improving social awareness through education and an aggressive strategy against these diseases is a priority of this government.
Areas such as the development of a home-based care network and other issues surrounding the HIV/AIDS epidemic are receiving further attention. Indeed we are moving closer towards the realisation of Health for All.
We are doing this through expanding primary health care facilities, improving the quality of health services, dealing with infectious diseases including tuberculosis, malaria, HIV/AIDS, cholera and Women's Health.
In short we will continue vigorously promoting a healthy lifestyle amongst our people. That is why we deemed it extremely important that we, amongst others, develop, establish and implement an adolescent sexuality program at a cost of more than R3,4-million.
Although the availability of drugs in our clinics has improved, we will continue our quest for affordable healthcare for all.
As a province we promise to further improve the management of Pharmaceuticals, rehabilitate, renovate and operationalise existing healthcare facilities. Indeed we have gone a long way since we made that promise in the Legislature.
Programme Director, the issue of preventable blindness is a worrying matter to us as government. And while we do our bit, our partners are also lending a hand in advancing and promoting health for all.
I am glad to say that because some people in this government, in partnership with the South African National Council for the Blind, the Bureau for the Prevention of Blindness and Sightsavers and others decided to do something about it, we are gathered here today.
These are people with an aim of restoring and saving sight and enabling those who are permanently disabled.
People with an aim of helping those who are blind, visually impaired and deafblind with a variety of services including orientation and mobility training, vision rehabilitation, technical aids, counselling and referral, and career development and employment .
In the year 2000 a multi-million rand project known as the Right to Sight Campaign was launched to offer people who are blind due to cataracts, but who cannot afford to undergo surgery, the opportunity to have their sight restored at a much-reduced cost.
Research identified a clear need to provide more permanent services in the rural areas of the country. This prompted them to investigate the establishment of permanent eye care center.
The objective of establishing permanent eye care centre is to develop eye care service to match the needs of the communities served.
Specifically to encourage the local health authorities to plan an active role in the eye care programme for their communities, to increase the capacity of their staff and to increase the number of cataract operations performed each year.
That is why the Bureau for the Prevention of Blindness in South African and Sightsavers International joined forces to establish the Ermelo Sightsavers Permanent Eye Care Centre.
Since its establishment , more than 8 000 patients have been screened and more than 500 operations performed.
Like in any country as the population ages, there will be a higher demand for resources to meet needs of blind, visually impaired and deafblind people in our province. But with such a wonderful programme as SIGHTSAVERS, we can be assured that more members of the public would be made aware of the fact that cataract blindness is curable.
Aware that there is accessible and affordable treatment.
I am told the aim this year is to screen more than 50 000 people, and perform over 1000 sight restoring operations per year. There is also the ambitious, yet achievable project to train a number of cataract surgeons and Ophthalmic nurses.
In the province as vast and as rural as ours there are only seven optometrists and 18 ophthalmic nurses. Because we have very few trained professionals, the waiting lists for treatment are getting longer.
In conclusion let us not relent on spreading the gospel that blindness is in some cases preventable.
Let us tell the people and act.
Finally, let us all dedicate ourselves to the prevention of blindness and build a non-racial, non-sexist, united, and prosperous democratic South Africa. The ingredients for faster progress on all fronts of our work are there.
The primary one among these is our collective appreciation that no one, and no one, can do for us what we should do for ourselves.
Together as a people, we have made great strides.
The successes we have achieved make the clear statement that acting together, we can and shall continue to push back the frontiers of poverty and expand access to a better life.
I thank you.