For the past year, Kandi found he had difficulty in seeing. He visited three different eye clinics, where he was prescribed eyeglasses and recommended surgery. However, as a daily wage earner, Kandi barely managed to make ends meet. He could never imagine having enough money to pay for eye surgery, even though he needed it desperately.

His failing eyesight soon made it very difficult for him to work, especially during evening and night hours. He became dependent on his wife or mother to help him travel to his workplace. Luckily, a colleague was very supportive and helped him to accomplish tasks at work.

Meanwhile, Kandi’s mother also started losing her vision, which began to restrict her movements even at home. With both her husband and mother-in-law incapacitated with blindness, the burden on Kandi’s wife Pusphalatha became heavy. Life was very difficult for the family.

Fortunately, Pusphalatha’s sister lives in Fatehnagar, a slum area of Hyderabad where Operation Eyesight has community eye health projects as part of the Seeing is Believing program, sponsored by Standard Chartered Bank. She told a project community health worker about her sister’s dilemma, and the worker encouraged her to tell her sister about the vision centre.

Pusphlatha brought her mother-in-law and husband to the vision centre where they both were diagnosed with cataract and referred to Kishor Chand Eye Hospital for surgery. They were overjoyed when the community health worker reassured them that funding from Operation Eyesight donors would cover the cost of the surgeries.

Kandi was able to secure a month’s leave from his employer to undergo surgery, and he and his mother went to the hospital, where they underwent surgery one after another.

While his mother is very grateful to the project staff for giving her vision back, Kandi wants to spread the news about the good work carried out by Operation Eyesight and the community eye health project. Perhaps the happiest of all was Pusphlatha. One of our staff remarked that “the relief on Kandi’s wife’s face was beyond words.”

Read more about our innovative community development programs in India.

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As Director of Policy and Planning for International Programs, most of my international relationships are maintained by phone or email. How did we ever manage without the internet? I have been to India and Africa, and I can confirm how rich and diverse these places are. Yes, there are language and culture gaps between my world and theirs, but the bigger gap is one of prosperity. Those with limited means, the poor of the tropical world, struggle with life-and-death issues that I can only imagine.

How do they manage? It’s all about family – the way that mothers, brothers, uncles and aunts all look out for one another, from the youngest to the oldest. For many, their social safety net is each other.

Someone once asked me if the poor of India are sad. I can’t answer that question, but I can say that many of the people I’ve seen on the streets of Mumbai or in the slums of Hyderabad are industrious and highly motivated, regardless of their station in life.

Imagine being really poor, living under a tarp by the side of the road and then one day, making enough money to move into a hut with a solid roof – that’s progress! Family forms the foundation of their lives and these people often make great sacrifices for one another – they take nothing for granted.

Yes, there are differences between Canada and the developing world, but family is important everywhere. Here in Alberta (and also in the provinces of Saskatchewan and Ontario), we even have a statutory holiday called Family Day, which occurs every year on the third Monday of February. If you’re celebrating it this weekend, we hope you enjoy the extra time with your family.

At Operation Eyesight, we’ve come to see that family and community – social interconnectedness – is the key to addressing the deep issues behind visual impairment and other health problems. Right now in India, we are hiring people of limited means, and training them to work alongside their neighbours in the poor sections of urban and rural India. Using their own social networks, these Community Health Workers are conveying the message that blindness is not inevitable, so that people get the help they need. In this way, entire families, neighbourhoods and villages are helped to grow in health and prosperity.

To learn more about the places where this is happening, visit the Programs and Projects section of our website.

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Hyderabad is a huge city (compared with Calgary, where I live) with all the urban drama, extreme sights and sounds, and contrast between rich and poor that characterize most Indian cities. Leaving the city for the smaller centres can be a relief to the senses, but the contrasts and disparities are no less evident in the countryside.

While in India and other developing countries, I’m often struck by the vulnerability of women, especially those who must fend for themselves. I note that women and children are the focus of this year’s International Development Week (February 5-11). It’s a good time, therefore, to remember that nearly two-thirds of blind people worldwide are women and girls, and in many places, men have twice the access to eye care as women.* In countries with significant poverty, like the places where Operation Eyesight is at work, equal access to eye care could substantially reduce blindness and the problems associated with low vision.

Operation Eyesight’s approach to development is based on the belief that all people, regardless of income, location or gender, should have access to information about eye health and to medical services when they need them. That, we believe, is the key to eliminating avoidable blindness.

I’m reminded of the story of Parvathy, a woman who benefited from the community outreach program of Garnett Memorial Hospital in southern India. Talk about vulnerable! Parvathy’s work as a weaver was her livelihood, but blindness from cataracts threatened her very life. You can read about her in the latest issue of SightLines newsletter on page one.

International Development Week is a time to learn more about life in developing countries and ways to contribute to positive change locally and globally. Speaking from here in Hyderabad, I see women struggling with poverty, but I also see a culture that is rich in ancient tradition as well as modern innovation. Take time next week, if you can, to learn about India and all it has to offer.

Also, stay tuned to Grey Mist Lifting in the weeks ahead for more stories about the ways that international development is changing the world, and how you can help.

* Source: Vision 2020: The Right to Sight

The post Remembering women in need appeared first on Operation Eyesight.

I met Mabbula earlier this year while in Hyderabad, where I visited the Rasoolpura slum. Hyderabad may be a glamorous and prosperous place, but like most cities in India, it has large pockets of dire poverty. But here’s the funny thing about India’s slums. Yes, they are squalid and unpleasant, but a slum is not necessarily a dead end. Typically, it is a way-station for people seeking opportunity.

That opportunity came to Mabbula thanks to free training, made possible by Operation Eyesight donors.

This bright young woman serves as the vision technician at the eye clinic in Rasoolpura. When she was a child, her family took full advantage of what education was available in the slum, and Mabbula excelled.

But regardless of her education, she might have lived her life in poverty if she hadn’t learned about the opportunity to be trained at the LV Prasad Eye Institute (LVP), also in Hyderabad. She faced stiff competition for a place in the class, and she had to work hard throughout the accelerated three-month training program. The fact that she is female made the process even more challenging, but she did it.

Mabbula is very good at her job. Not only has she been well-trained, she is part of a network of support and professional development opportunities, with LVP at the hub.

But perhaps most important of all, she is already acquainted with the people who come to her – she’s one of them. They are comfortable discussing their health issues and she gives them information and advice which serves to prevent eye problems in the first place. She is helping her community to be free of avoidable blindness.

When I met with Mabbula, she smiled a lot – it was clear that she is thrilled with her job and very appreciative for the changes in her life. She in turn is helping to change the lives of struggling people around her. To the generous donors who give to Operation Eyesight and made all this possible, Mabbula says thanks.

Vision technicians like Mabbula are desperately needed throughout India. Their ability to provide primary eye care through diagnosis and basic treatment is the foundation of an effective eye health system. You can provide training for someone like Mabbula – visit our online Gift Guide today to learn how.

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