An Eye on the Extent

 An Eye on the Extent

“Together for a Sweetest Extent”

“An Eye on the Extent”, is a health development project due to be carried out in Lattakia from 18 February to 11 March by Al-Mada Association in collaboration  with  the MED-volunteer medical team.  The project targets school students in the poor neighborhoods  that suffer a large percentage of school dropout . Students will undergo an optical checkup  in their schools by the Med-volunteer team then children who need treatment will be sent to volunteer doctors. The cases of the students will be  followed up every six months by the association.

To learn more about Al-Mada  activities in general and  about “An Eye on The Extent” project in particular, The Syria Times e-newspaper interviewed Mrs. Rasha Khairbek, Head of Al-Mada Society, who said : “Our society is a social development society that deals with several serious  issues including school dropout, juvenile employment and early marriage.

So “Eye on The Extent” is not the only project we have sponsored. We have carried out a lot of  projects, such as ; Help Me, “take my hand” which was made in collaboration with volunteer painters. The project was addressed  for the children who are dropping out of their schools to express their vision of the school through drawing. There is also , Madrasati, “My School”  project to emphasize the importance of cleanliness in school.

We also worked on “My Family” project to support poor families financially through donations from the local community to encourage them sending their children to school”.

“As for our current project some 1400 children will benefit from“ An Eye on The Extent” project which will last for three weeks,” Mrs.  Khairbek stressed.

The Golden Goal of the Project

Technical supervisor of the project, Dr. Mirai Jamal said : “We choose children aged from 6to 8 for two reasons:  the first one is that kids in this age can be easily examined because they know letters and numbers which is hard to be done with younger ones.

The second is to save these kids  from amblyopia (lazy eye)which means : After the age of 8 the benefits of using the correct glasses to improve vision become less, because the brain in this age ignore the blurred view and receive the good one only and keep this level of vision to the rest of life because it will not work after this age.

So discovering the problems of vision for these children  before being eight years old is our golden  goals”.

With respect to the justification of the project, Dr. Jamal stressed that many students face health problems that require medical checkup, especially that many of the parents are unaware of their children health. Therefore, the early medical checkup is necessary to recognize the safety of the child’s optical system at this important stage of his life where he is ready to receive knowledge  . The child’s visual problems make him unable to receive information correctly therefore he will lose communication with knowledge system.

Dr. Imad Dahhan, a member of the volunteer team which includes a group of doctors who pursue their higher studies, said: “We are a team of medical students and residents who are  joined by a passion and drive for improving medical research and healthcare in Syria. We started as a small research-oriented team in Tishreen University. The team started a number of research projects tackling issues like leishmaniasis, depression, and cancer. We have also published a number of manuscripts in international peer-reviewed journals about the peculiar cases that we encountered during our hospital training.”

 Dr. Dahhan went on to say: “Apart from research, the team has expanded his work to include education as we are currently hosting an international research course in Tishreen University Faculty of Medicine. Additionally, we are organizing scientific poster sessions in the local medical conferences. We strongly believe in the potential of the youth medical generation. Our ultimate aim is to be actively involved in rebuilding the Syrian healthcare system, and strengthening healthcare and research in Syria.”

“ Building upon our aim and vision, we decided to join efforts with Al-Mada Organization in their project. We believe that this project is of utmost medical and educational importance considering the low attention given to childhood eyesight problems in these neighborhoods. We are pleased to be a part of the project, and looking forward to producing significant results,” Dr. Dahhan concluded.

Amal Farhat from Lattakia to the Syria Times