While eye diseases continue to affect thousands of people, ophthalmologist Dr. Boubacar Sarr is sounding the alarm about the importance of prevention and early detection. He states that "8 out of 10 cases of blindness can be prevented or treated."

He explains: “Ophthalmology is the entire science that studies the eyes. We have ophthalmologists in this country, but what we want to do is focus on eye health. It's broader than that. That is to say, we need to prevent the onset of diseases that cause blindness, such as cataracts, glaucoma, diabetic eye complications, and high blood pressure. These conditions have treatments.” He also indicates that the estimated prevalence of blindness in Senegal is 1.42%.

To achieve this, he continued, during an immersive dinner entitled "Seeing Differently" held entirely in darkness, bringing together around twenty personalities from the health sector, institutions, media and civil society, organized by the eye clinic last Wednesday, "we need infrastructure that heals and the necessary human resources."

Because, he explains, "to activate demand, people need to be able to come; that's where awareness comes in for all communication strategies so that patients take responsibility for their eye health."

Dr. Boubacar Sarr reminds us that "health, whether ocular or not, is a vital asset that must be preserved."

During this encounter, the guests, deprived of sight from the beginning to the end of the dinner, experienced a guided meal where taste, smell, touch and hearing became the only reference points.

This immersion helped to provoke a strong and empathetic awareness, by inviting participants to experience, in a concrete way, a part of the daily life of people living with a visual impairment.

"The objective was twofold: to strengthen understanding of the challenges related to vision and to encourage a greater culture of prevention and ophthalmological monitoring," explained Mireia Caufapé, the initiator of the first immersive dinner in the dark in Senegal to raise awareness of visual health.