The eye cataract surgeries, which is a follow up on an eye screening exercise conducted at the Prison over the weekend, involved eight males and one female.

A team of ophthalmologists, optometrist, ophthalmic nurses and others groups in eye care led by Dr Wiafe Boateng carried out the eye surgeries on the inmates at the Nsawam Government Hospital.

Mr. Ebenezer Kofi Adu-Lartey, Director of My Health Behind Bars project said the eye screening and surgeries were good interventions for the inmates because about 1:5 inmates had an eye condition challenge.

He said: "For instance, our hero Nelson Mandela if he had not had good health care during his 27yrs imprisonment, he could not have come back to rule South Africa again.

This is one of the reasons why we are providing quality health care services in all the 43 prisons in Ghana under my Health Behind Bars project and also contribute in helping Ghana to achieve it SDG Goal 3 target of good health and well-being for all ".

Dr. Lawrence Kofi Acheampong, Doctor in charge of the Nsawam Prisons Clinic said the project was a timely intervention because the inmates had an eye challenge and commended the efforts of My Health Behind Bars project on the eye screening and surgery exercise as a good one.

He encouraged other benevolent organizations, religious bodies and donor agencies to partner and extend support to the other 42 prisons in Ghana.

Dr. Billey Quaye, an Ophthalmologist with the team said out of the 300 inmates screened, 25 were due for the cataract surgery. Nine out of 25 inmates picked up by the screening team showed up for the surgery. Security and other reasons were attributed to their inability to turn up.

Dr Quaye expressed joy that such a collaboration could bring the much needed care to the doorstep of the inmates at no cost. Dr. Quaye encouraged other benevolent organizations, religious bodies and donor agencies to support the My Health Behind Bars Project.

He expressed gratitude to the prison officers for their immense contribution in making the exercise a success. "I believe together we can iron out the bottlenecks of this current outreach and make subsequent ones much more successful", he added.