95 underprivileged Moro eye patients receive free treatment

COTABATO CITY — Nearly a hundred marginalized Moro villagers in a Cotabato town in the Bangsamoro region benefited from an eye care mission led by government officials and a private humanitarian team on Monday, February 3.

Municipal officials and barangay leaders in Kapalawan, one of the eight newly-established Bangsamoro towns in Cotabato, confirmed on Tuesday, February 4, that 95 residents of Barangay Nasapian received free reading glasses during an outreach activity organized by Bangsamoro parliament member, physician-ophthalmologist Kadil Sinolinding Jr., and a medical team from the Deseret Foundation.

Six Barangay Nasapian residents diagnosed with cataracts and pterygium have been scheduled for surgery, which will be facilitated by Sinolinding's medical team.

The Deseret Foundation, based in Kabacan near Kapalawan, supports various medical programs across Cotabato and the 63 barangays in the Special Geographic Area of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. These 63 barangays are now part of eight municipalities established by the BARMM parliament last year.

Local officials said the joint outreach team of regional lawmaker Sinolinding, who also serves as BARMM health minister, and Bangsamoro Chief Minister Ahod Balawag Ebrahim, has treated over 2,000 eye patients in Kapalawan alone in the past seven months.

“All of those they treated are patients from poor families. To all those who facilitated these series of outreach missions, we are thankful,” Kapalawan's appointed mayor, Norman Cadi Inalang, said.

Sinolinding said their eye care programs in the eight BARMM towns in Cotabato are supported by Provincial Governor Emmylou Mendoza, her constituent-mayors, Muslim and Christian religious leaders, units of the 602nd Infantry Brigade under the 6th Infantry Division, and officers from the provincial police office.