The long-term health program is one of the present challenges among the elderlies, particularly the indigent senior citizens. Anyone who reaches age 60 in the Philippines is already considered as a senior citizen.
Some of them suffer from partial or permanent disabilities such as poor eyesight, hearing immobility, and from certain diseases.
Senior citizens are considered indigents if they are “frail”, “sickly”, with the disability, or without pension or regular source of income, compensation or financial assistance from his/her relatives to support his/her basic needs.
Eye diseases occur such as Age-Related Macular Degeneration (ADM), Cataracts, Glaucoma, and other vision problems of elders. These eye diseases, if left untreated, could lead to vision loss and blindness. A recommended regular eye exam is a must to prevent these health problems.
Lack of financial support to indigent senior citizens is one of the reasons for disregarding their health conditions such as poor eyesight and eye diseases.
In one of our community projects that I spearheaded, I got a moment to spend the time to indigent senior citizens as beneficiaries for an eye checkup and cataract removal in Barangay Binduyan, Puerto Princesa City. They said, instead of setting aside money for their checkup and eye surgery, they save their money for the basic needs of their family such as food and shelter. Some of them are still working, receiving a small amount of pension from the government, while a number of them do not have any source of income at all and rely on family members for support.
To address these indigent senior citizens’ health concerns, enfeebled elderlies of Barangay Binduyan, Puerto Princesa City received free at cost optimum eyesight as beneficiaries of eye health program from Palawan Eye Center in partnership with JCI Puerto Princesa Oil, dubbed as “Kita-Kita” project which aimed to provide medical assistance and improve poor eyesight conditions and treat diseases such as cataract at their barangay almost a year ago, last May 26, 2018.
After receiving treatment, we received messages from beneficiaries how the medical mission helped them improve their eyesight and get them back to have a vision in life. They feel BETTER, empowered, and enjoying attending meetings of senior citizens at barangay assembly and spending quality time with their family.
“Kita Kita” is an eye health program started in August 2017 during Sight-Saving Month celebration. Hundreds of beneficiaries already received free eye checkup, eyeglasses, and medical attention from Barangay Tiniguiban, Bacungan, and Binduyan at Puerto Princesa City.
The objective of this celebration is to bring awareness to eye health and important practices to maintain throughout the year and provide free eye health access to marginalized communities.
“Sight-Saving Month aims to emphasize the importance of protecting and taking good care of the eyes and to encourage the public to be aware of available means of restoring lost eyesight and the value of organ donation” Department of Health.
This year, to ensure the continued health program, “Kita-Kita” project will bring to the remotest area in Palawan, with a medical mission team comprised of NGO and ophthalmologists to provide optimum eye health care.
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