Barely one year after Samsung Heavy Industries Nigeria (SHIN) Limited funded eye surgeries for 102 Nigerian patients with cataracts, the ship-building giant is sponsoring the eye surgeries of at least 100 more Nigerian patients, as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in Nigeria.
This Annual event will take place from the 1st of October 2019 to the 4th of October 2019 at the LASUTH hospital in Lagos. The Event will kick off with a press conference on the 30th of September at LASUTH and also end with ceremony the closing ceremony on the 4th of October 2019. The closing ceremony is where patients will be taking off their eye shield for the first time since their operations. All patients will be expected to be cured from cataracts and some patients would be seeing clearly for the first time since being diagnosed with cataracts.
SHIN has emphasised that the annual event is open to all with limited spaces but especially caters for the most vulnerable people in our communities and aims to eradicate cataracts in as many Nigeria’s as possible. According to the World health Organisation Cataracts accounts for 51% of World Blindness making this annual event by SHIN a truly worthwhile cause.
SHIN’s new gesture is coming exactly one month after the company donated electrical equipment, clothing and other relief materials to the victims of herdsmen and Boko Haram insurgents’ attacks in Jos, Plateau State.
A missionary group from Korea had constructed a school in Jos for the villagers in Rhizha, where four missionaries were teaching about 560 children and also providing counselling to victims, mostly women, suffering from the trauma from Boko Haram insurgents’ attacks.
However, these acts of violence did not deter the missionary from creating this initiative to assist the community.
In the previous Eye surgeries SHIN had sponsored in 2018 as part of its CSR, 102 patients, who were at the risk of blindness, recovered their eyesight with Vision Care, an organisation under the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Since 2015, Samsung has worked with Vision Care in the yearly Eye Camp to give free cataract surgeries to individuals who cannot afford the treatment.
SHIN said in a statement yesterday that the medical team that will carry out this year’s eye surgeries will come from the United States, Republic of Korea, Nigeria and Ethiopia.
“The medical volunteer team consist of doctors, nurses, volunteers from USA, Republic of Korea, Nigeria and Ethiopia. The team will carry out cataract procedures for children and adult who are in need for the surgery,” the statement said.
“We are targeting to provide procedures for at least 100 patients. Among the target, we are hoping to carry out the procedure for at least 10 children with cataract,” the statement said.
The statement added that the Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to Nigeria, In-tae Lee would be participating in the event in support of the company’s CSR initiative.
The Korean and Nigerian employees from SHIN, who actively participated in the eye camp in 2018, acquired the basic knowledge about ophthalmology through pre-orientation.
They actively assisted the medical staff in the overall medical treatment process such as patient reception, disinfection, injection of eye drops, vision test, and helping the patients to wear a protective cap to ensure the operations went well even with difficulties in the hospital, and the existing medical environment.
Apart from sponsoring eye surgeries as part of Samsung’s social contribution to the Nigerian community, SHIN has established a world-class Welding Qualification Centre in Lagos.
This centre has trained 530 young Nigerians and they have received international certifications, which they can use for many job opportunities worldwide. Samsung Heavy Industries Nigeria’s continued dedication in corporate social responsibility initiatives in Nigeria since 2015 sets an example and stimulates others to follow the goodwill and it indeed keeps us anticipated to see more of Samsung’s future activities for Nigeria.
