Foundation plans Avoidable Blunder to save sight

Mission To Save Sight Africa Foundation, a non-governmental organisation has planned a movie project titled Avoidable Blunder as a tool to reach out to Africans on certain major causes of avoidable blindness and visual impairments, namely cataract glaucoma, childhood blindness, trachoma, onchocerchissis and refractive errors.

  The movie, which will be premiered across Africa with actors and actresses from across cultural backgrounds, will focus on corrective reformation since blindness as a health issue has been with humanity for a long time.

  Speaking on the project in Lagos, the founder of the organisation, Dr (Mrs.) Oluwafunmike Ani, said with this educational-must watch movie, the right to Sight Initiative of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness have taken a giant leap.

  According to her, since blindness is often not a direct cause of death, generations have down-played its significance hence it has been successfully pushed to the back burner of disease control for such a long time.

  Dr. Ani, who expressed worries over the high rate of blindness in the African continent, said the multi-million naira film project, which comes on stream in three months’ time, will remove ignorance, promote, educate and inform the African masses about blindness as well as encourage industry, creativity and research activities on blindness.

  To ensure the realisation of the film’s objective, she said the foundation has enlisted Meljenstin Nigeria Limited, a renowned Public Relations Consultants, to help recruit a reputable film producer, director, and A-rated African artists, as well as strategic communication and attract brand values for the project.

  The director of the movie project, Mr Okechukwu Ifeanyi, who has more than 50 films to his credit remarked the film will be subtitled in different African languages to engender greater appeal as well as feature some notable African actors and actresses. He said the film would be produced by one of the nation’s experienced producers, Mr. Steve Eboh.

  Managing Director and CEO of Meljenstin, Mrs. Chibuzor Patrick, called on corporate bodies to utilise the opportunity of the film to brand themselves with the project and expose the careless ways Africans treat their eyes, the consequences and solutions.

  She assured that corporate bodies would certainly benefit with the highest level of branding visibility for participating on the laudable project.