DINNER IN THE DARK (NIGERIA) by Mission To Save Sight Africa Foundation

Dinner in The Dark by MTSSAF is an initiative to raise awareness on blindness, to help people understand the experiences of the blind person, and to encourage individuals to support the cause to help the blind and to eliminate needless blindness in our society.

Dr. (Mrs) Oluwafunmike Ani is the founder of Mission to Save Sight Africa Foundation (MTSSAF) and also the CEO (& community Opthalmologist) of Hiva’s place, an eye care and surgery center situated in Festac Town, Lagos.

Dr Ani and MTSSAF are very passionate about the cause to eliminate needless blindness and to create awareness amongst Nigerians especially about the importance of taking good care the eye.  I visited her office, few days ago to ask and talk about the upcoming event and cause.

Esther/ED: Do tell us about the event ‘Dinner in the Dark’ and the organization behind this initiative.

Esther/ED: Do tell us about the event ‘Dinner in the Dark’ and the organization behind this initiative.

Dr Ani/MTSSAF: My name is Dr Mrs Ani and I’m the founder of Mission to Save Sight Africa Foundation (MTSSAF), a non-governmental organization that is out to take action against blindness, needless blindness specifically.

The WHO has defined needless blindness as those causes of blindness that can be treated and can be avoided.  So, sometimes we call it avoidable blindness and sometimes we call it needless blindness. There are about 5 major causes of needless blindness.

What MTSSF is doing is collaborating specifically to eliminate needless blindness and we have several objectives, one of which is advocacy. 

The upcoming event Dinner in the Dark is being organized to raise awareness among Nigerians on blindness and how it is with the man who now suffers from irreparable or incurable blindness.  Those that are curable, which is usually 80% all cause of blindness, can be treated.  A lot is been done about that.  Dinner in the dark is an opportunity for every one of us to experience firsthand, may be for a few minutes, what it feels like to be without sight for the rest of one’s life.  The task we are going to be taken on is the task of eating.  How does a blind man eat?  Last year, I was opportune to visit a restaurant in London called Dans le noir where I had a personal experience of being served in the dark from start to finish.  In that restaurant, we were made to eat totally in the dark.  The experience I had is unexplainable.  It is good you to come for this event (Dinner in the Dark) and you would understand better.  It will help you respond to the issue of blindness differently.

This event is also a gala event where MTSSAF gets to introduce itself to you and give details on where we are today and where we are going as an organization.

Image Courtesy: http://7days.ae/things-to-do-today-art-paper-workshop-and-free-checkup

Esther/ED:  For someone reading this, loves the idea and wants to be participate, how does he/she go about it?

Dr Ani/MTTSAF: If you would like to participate in Dinner in the dark, we are charging a minimum dinner fee of N5000 per person.  If you would like to do more, in other to support this cause, we would appreciate it. You would have to call or send a text message to this number: 08120597486 or send an email to mtssaf15@gmail.com  or hovasicare@gmail.com and we will get back to you.

Image courtesy: http://thefulcrum.ca/arts/an-eye-opening-experience/

Esther/ED:  Some interested persons may be wondering what the content of the event will be like, do give us some highlights.

Dr Ani/MTTSAF:  We are going to be having lots of fun. We will share some clips of activities we’ve carried out. We would also share brief details on our last event which was on the second Thursday of October, wherein we engaged students on vision education.  We would show a trailer of our upcoming movie titled ‘Avoidable blunder.  This movie is about to enter the market and would be available for public view very soon.  We would share on projects we have at hand.  There is a young man who would come in to talk about ‘what life is like when you are blind’.  He is a physically challenged undergraduate in one of the federal government universities.  His life is so challenging and you will have the opportunity to ask him questions.   We would have a very informative book on display, it’s titled ‘My eyes, my life’ written by an ophthalmologist for the lay man.  You would also have the opportunity to go away with health coupons and other souvenirs.  Depending on how you support us, we would also say thank you by giving you a coupon that allows you come for free eye screening for the next two years (once a year) at our center.

Esther/ED:  Nigerians are not so conscious about taking care of their eyes and this is worrisome. Could you talk about this a bit?

Dr Ani/MTSSAF:  We have just two eyes.  Many people don’t even know that even though they have two eyes that are open, it is only one eye that is working.  All of us need to do a check-up at least once in two years.  When an individual is over forty, a yearly check needs to be done. We need to find out regularly about the state of our eyes.  Our eyes give beauty and when things go wrong, they distort our faces. We need to understand that it is not every disease that must be treated with glasses.   We need to understand that it’s not everything we drop in our eyes. I have handled cases of 28year olds that went blind simply because they were told to use urine in their eyes and they went blind.  The eye is so important. I have heard from people who have other disabilities and people who blindness is their disability, often they usually say that they wish it was their hand or leg they lost and that it is so terrible that they do not have their eyes to see the world. This is a clarion call to everyone: do take care of your eyes, so it may be with you for long. There are many quotes and one of them is about glaucoma and it goes: Don’t let glaucoma take your sight from you in broad daylight.

There are many stories I can tell but I’ll leave it till the event, then I’ll shed more light on this.

Esther/ED: Ma, Please share with us some basic eye tips.

Dr Ani/MTSSAF: This might feel like you are playing, but cover your right eyes with one hand and see how the world looks with your left eye. Do this with other eye also.  When you see a child moving too close to the screen to watch TV, it is necessary to quickly take that child for treatment because it means that child has a problem and is not seeing well. There are lots of parents who would say all the optician would do is give the child glasses to wear and that the child is too young.  It is better to bring a child in early for treatment. We need to realize that often times, children are born with diseases too.  Most of these children, sad to say, die before they are five years old, because they are in danger. They would fall into something because they can’t see anyway.  They can also be a burden because they are the kids you want to keep indoors so they don’t get in danger.  Do eat well; nutrition is very important concerning our eyes.  Fresh fruits like carrots and tomatoes are very good for our eyes.  Also, drink lots of water.  It would wash away toxins in our body and those toxins won’t have a way to hide in the eye.