Many of our donors around the world celebrated Easter last weekend. Easter is often seen as a time of rebirth. This holiday welcomes the change of the season – the cold days of winter are done, and new life is born. Trees and flowers bloom and animals have their young.

Many of the people we help say that having their sight restored is like being reborn. Their sight gives them a new lease on life because they’re able to regain their independence, go back to work and care for their families. And children can go back to having fun and going to school when they don’t need to stay home to take care of their blind family member.

Your support has helped people like Akua…

“I worried a lot and I was scared I would die early in life,” says 56-year-old Akua from Ghana (above). Losing her sight meant she had to rely on her children for financial support. Eventually she was examined and diagnosed with cataracts at Saltpond Government Hospital. She was initially scared of the surgery that could restore her sight, but a nurse named Gladys reassured her. Now Akua can see again! Thanks to you, she’s returned to work, selling fish and charcoal!

And little Irene…

Little Irene (above) was born in 2012, three years after Operation Eyesight drilled a borehole in Siabaswi village, Zambia. She doesn’t remember what it was like to be without clean water, but her mother Katherine does. Women and girls could spend all day collecting water, and the unclean river water used to give the family monthly bouts of diarrhea. Now, thanks to you, children like Irene can get fresh water from a safe source close to home!

Your generous gifts have given so many people new hope for the future, but there are still thousands who need your help. Donate today and give the gift of sight – and renewed hope.

Thank you for your incredible support! 

The post Thank you for giving new hope to people like Akua and Irene! appeared first on Operation Eyesight.

Can you imagine what it would be like to be a young man in a remote village, watching your parents struggle to bring food to the table, and realizing that you’re losing your sight?

And imagine what it would be like to be a mother living in poverty and watching your son go blind?

When Shivsagar started to lose his sight as a child, his mother didn’t have any other option but to take him to a healer in the village. Their village did not have a healthcare centre, and Shivsagar’s mother couldn’t afford the bus fare to the nearest hospital, let alone the expensive sight-saving treatments. Besides, taking Shivsagar to the hospital would cost her a day’s work and cost her family a day’s meal. So, she did all she could – placing all her hopes on the village healer and praying for her son’s remaining sight.

Sadly, the folk healer’s medicines had no effect. Shivsagar’s mother helplessly watched her son’s world go dark around him. He became alienated and eventually he was forced to drop out of school.

In many communities in India, men are expected to look after their parents when they grow old. However, instead of growing up to become a breadwinner for the family, Shivsagar depended more and more on his mother for his daily needs. But one day everything changed!

Years after Shivsagar lost his sight, his sister got married and moved to the city of Bangalore with her husband.

Operation Eyesight established a vision centre in Bangalore and Jyoti, one of our community health workers, went door-to-door in the area screening households for their eye health. As luck would have it, Jyoti met Shivsagar’s sister. When Jyoti heard about Shivsagar, she urged his sister to bring him to Bangalore.

So 20-year-old Shivsagar travelled 700 kilometers to his sister’s place in Bangalore and met with Jyoti. Jyoti referred him to the vision centre and the hospital, where the doctors identified the damage to his cornea and offered a cornea transplantation surgery at an affordable, subsidized cost of less than 100 Canadian dollars.

Cornea transplants need eye donors. After being referred for the surgery, Shivsagar returned to his village and waited for a donor. The long-awaited call came a year later!

Two weeks after the surgery, he could see his surroundings again, and his sight would keep improving for the next three months.

Shivsagar is at his sister’s recovering from his surgery, ready to head home to take on his new life. Once he returns to his village, he hopes to find a job to support his mother.

It’s a new beginning! Not just for Shivsagar, but also for his mom. Now she can rest easy knowing that her son can provide for their little family, and she knows that his future is bright and full of hope – all thanks to the support of incredible people like you!

Thank you so much for your incredible gifts that are helping to restore sight and hope for people like Shivsagar! There are still thousands like him who need your help. Please consider donating today and give the gift of sight to more people in need – For All The World To See!

The post Hope comes in the form of a community health worker appeared first on Operation Eyesight.