Liu Minxia

    mllmx@msn.com

    A CHARITABLE project to provide free strabismus treatment for children from needy families nationwide kicked off Thursday at a Shenzhen hospital, where five children had undergone surgery a day earlier.

    Sponsored by C-MER (Shenzhen) Dennis Lam Eye Hospital, Project Vision Charitable Foundation and Chow Tai Fook’s charitable foundation, the strabismus treatment campaign under Project Vision aims to help 100 families afford surgeries for their children with strabismus, Dennis Lam, chairman of Project Vision Charitable Foundation and director of C-MER (Shenzhen) Dennis Lam Eye Hospital, told reporters.

    One of the children who underwent surgery Wednesday, identified as Little Min, was discovered to have been suffering from strabismus since she was born, and she now also has myopia. Min, now 6, was born to a farmer’s family in a mountainous village in Guizhou Province, and her parents have been borrowing money to get her eyes treated since she was 2.

    Min’s parents said that they were almost ready to give up on her eyes when the project gave their family new hope.

    Another young patient, Little Zun, from Lufeng, Guangdong Province, is 5 years old. His father, Zun, is paralyzed by diseases and is unable to pay his school tuition.

    Strabismus, more commonly known as cross-eyed or wall-eyed, is a vision condition with which a person cannot align both eyes simultaneously under normal conditions. One or both of the eyes may turn in, out, up or down. It is estimated that up to 2 percent of Chinese children have some type or degree of strabismus. Children with strabismus may initially have double vision, which may develop into amblyopia.

    Many hospitals in China can carry out strabismus surgery, but minimally invasive surgery under a microscope is still rare, according to Dr. A. S. Karthikeyan, an expert in children’s eye problems at the hospital.

    Lam said that his hospital uses the minimally invasive approach to treat children and the surgeries on these five children were very successful.

    Project Vision, initiated by Lam in 2004 to help people with eye problems from poverty-stricken areas, has helped more than 140,000 people, overseen the establishment of 29 eye clinics in poverty-stricken areas in China and trained 140 doctors. Total investment in the project exceeded 200 million yuan (US$29.85 million).

    Children qualify for the project based on their family’s income and their condition. Those who qualify undergo surgery at C-MER (Shenzhen) Dennis Lam Eye Hospital, where surgeons include Lam and Karthikeyan. Those who are interested in learning more about the project can call 0755-3360-9300.