Vision care project targets healthy, quality living

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SOPB personnel, Jepak Health Clinic staff and SpecShop workers pose with the participants of SOPB’s Vision Care Project.

MIRI: Sarawak Oil Palms Berhad (SOPB) conducted a vision care programme in Tatau last week as part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR).

The event was held on Nov 2 at Rumah Buli Jamit in Sungai Semanok, Tatau in collaboration with the Health Ministry through the involvement of Jepak Health Clinic and Bintulu Hospital, and with support from SpecShop.

A longhouse resident undergoes a health screening during the programme.

“SOPB’s Vision Care Project is an annual CSR programme that was established in 2013 with the aim of creating awareness of healthy and quality living.

“It is also the intention of
SOPB to lower the risk of preventable blindness, particularly among elderly folk in longhouses who often do not have the necessary means to obtain immediate access to medical facilities,” SOPB said in a press release yesterday.

The project involved nine longhouses within the proximity of SOPB’s estates in Kuala Tatau.

Of the 105 individuals who registered for eye-screening, 103 were identified to be in need of spectacles while another 15 were required to undergo further medical review at Bintulu Hospital.

A SOPB staffer carries out a visual acuity test for a long house folk.

Among those present at the programme were SOPB Kuala Tatau 1 and 2 estate managers Budut Tumbai and Benedict Baja Malila respectively, as well as personnel from its public relations department, accounts department and plantation.

Meanwhile, longhouse chieftain Tuai Rumah Buli Jamit took the opportunity to thank SOPB and medical personnel for providing the free eye-screening as well as sponsoring spectacles and surgeries for those with vision problems.

The Vision Care Project is one of SOPB’s many CSR projects – among them the Young Achiever Awards (YAA), Students Adoption Programme (SAP) and SOPB-Get Equip’d Rehabilitation Programme – all of which are the catalyst for SOPB to grow together with local communities.