The World Vision Charity Organization, in partnership with the Fakkat Reiq Project and the Noor Initiative, inaugurated a free eye treatment camp in the Al-Hatana area north of Omdurman in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on Saturday.
Osman Al-Jundi, the founder of the Fakkat Reiq Project, told Radio Tamazuj that the project was launched at the beginning of the war to address its catastrophic effects, especially in providing food, treatment, clothing, and human resource development.
“The project operates through four pathways, and we have launched, in collaboration with the King Salman Center and the World Vision Charity Organization, the Noor Initiative which is a special initiative for treating eye patients as services were completely absent in the capital Khartoum after the start of the war,” he explained. “A large number of patients were affected, especially those in need of surgical operations, prescription glasses, and therapeutic eye drops. The camp will continue for three days, targeting more than 550 eye patients, starting with the distribution of free glasses and identifying cases that need surgeries which will be performed free of charge.”
This is the first initiative to treat eye patients since the war erupted in Khartoum and the partnership with the World Vision Charity Organization is part of the Saudi Noor program, a voluntary program to combat blindness and its causes which is sponsored by the King Salman Center for Relief and Humanitarian Works.
The free camp targets more than 550 eye patients, and Al-Jundi added that the Noor Initiative comes under the medicine pathway, where the Fakkat Reiq project operates through four pathways (food, clothing, medicine, and growth), with each pathway having initiatives that serve the Sudanese society during the war.
Hatim Zakaria, a representative of the World Vision Charity Organization, stated in a press statement that it is the first time the organization is holding an eye treatment camp in Omdurman since the war broke out.
“The organization has set up several camps during the war in several Sudanese cities, providing free reading glasses, free eyeglasses for various groups, free therapeutic eye drops, and referrals for cases needing surgeries,” he said.
Hatim pointed out that the camps will continue in Greater Omdurman City and in shelters to provide free eye treatment services, and informed the audience about the imminent return of work at Makkah Hospital in Omdurman City.
Concurrently with the launch of the Noor Initiative, the Fakkat Reiq Project, in partnership with Dr. Rasha Mohammed Hussein and Mona Mohammed Hussein, launched the Amal Initiative as part of the growth pathway.
Mona Mohammed Hussein told this publication that the Amal Initiative targets the development of women and children primarily during the war, as well as youth, to contribute to driving development.
“This is represented in providing funding for widowed mothers in the field of bakery production and the initiative will organize several qualification courses, motivational and encouraging lectures to emerge from the social and psychological reality caused by the war, and the initiative will hold a bi-monthly forum,” Mohammed said.