Living with her children in India, Shahnaz and her family provided well for themselves. She worked as a tailor, and her three young adult children all worked to contribute to the household income. She was a widow, and when she started losing her sight a couple of years ago, she became unable to do her sewing, but all of her family members pitched in to look after each other.

Everything changed in 2020 when COVID-19 hit. When lockdowns started in India, only one of Shahnaz’s children remained employed as a manual labourer. He worked hard to keep the family fed, but they struggled financially.

When the restrictions eased a bit, Shahnaz was determined to find help to turn things around for her family. She learned there was a vision centre nearby. She had her eyes examined there and was referred for cataract surgery. She was relieved to find out that the surgery cost would be covered, thanks to the generosity of our donors. Now that she can see clearly, she can sew again, and she no longer worries about her family having enough to eat.

For mothers like Shahnaz, access to eye health care provides the gift of seeing their children’s faces.

You can help empower more families like Shahnaz’s. Your generosity can allow a mother to proudly see her children grow up, as they work together to support each other. Please give the Gift of Sight today.

Samson is a very active 72-year-old. He takes pride in working hard to provide for his family. He weaves baskets to sell in town and he tends to his field with a plough and oxen.

When he started to lose his sight, he was terrified. His ability to provide for his family depended on his ability to see. Without it, he couldn’t make baskets or care for his field. He worried that his family wouldn’t have enough to eat. He had no idea where to go for help.

When Samson heard about a screening camp arranged by Operation Eyesight in his village, he was happy to have the opportunity to access eye health care services. He was diagnosed with cataracts and referred for surgery that significantly improved his vision within a day. He was thrilled with the results and looked forward to having surgery on his other eye as well. Samson’s life was transformed, thanks to the generosity of our donors.

“By losing my eyesight, I lost my livelihood!” Samson said. “I am so happy I can see again and get back to making and selling baskets.”

For parents like Samson, access to eye health care gives the gift of the ability to provide for their families.

You can help more families like Samson’s. Your generosity can give a parent the peace of mind that his children won’t go hungry. Please give the Gift of Sight today.

Mohammad is a little boy who had always suffered from poor eyesight. Even as a toddler, his vision seemed to keep him from doing more and more things a little boy should love to do. When he was two years old, a doctor at a government hospital advised his parents to take him to an eye hospital for check-ups every few months. Sadly, they couldn’t afford to travel the long distance to an eye hospital from their remote village in India.

With no solution available, Mohammad’s parents accepted that he would have to live with poor vision, completely reliant on others to help with simple daily tasks.

Imagine having no way to get help for your child as you worry about his future, knowing he could suffer for years with a vision problem without access to eye health care.

A couple of years later, a vision centre was established close to Mohammad’s home. His father took him for an eye exam, and he was provided with custom prescription eyeglasses. Just in time to start school, Mohammad can see!

Because of the generosity of donors like you, he will have no trouble learning to read or seeing the blackboard at school.

For children like Mohammad, access to eye health care provides the gift of a brighter future.

You can transform the life of a child like Mohammad. Your generosity can give a child the opportunities his parents thought he might never have. Please give the Gift of Sight today.

Marina is a 12-year-old girl who lives in a village in Assam state in India. She had always been a vibrant and happy girl who was eager to learn, but a few years ago, something had changed. Her teacher was the first to notice the deterioration in her vision. The teacher reported to her parents that her writing was suffering, and she couldn’t see the blackboard.

Her parents had noticed other issues at home. Marina seemed unhappy and irritated. It happened very slowly over time, but when they heard that Marina’s issue was affecting her performance in school, they were worried about her future.

Many children who live in remote villages continue to suffer when they develop treatable eye issues such as cataracts. Their parents may not be able to afford surgery, or even transportation to a hospital for an eye exam.

Fortunately, Marina lived close to a vision centre. Her parents were able to take her there for an exam, where she was referred for cataract surgery. Thanks to the generosity of our donors and our partners, Marina can see again and is excited to read and learn. She is once again the happy girl her parents knew!

“We are so grateful to the doctors for giving sight back to our daughter,” they said. “She is healthier and living a very happy life.”

For girls like Marina, access to eye health care provides the gift of education.

You can transform the life of a girl like Marina. Your generosity can give a child the healthy eyesight they need to craft a bright future. Please give the Gift of Sight today.

When Mohammad was two years old, his vision was poor, and his family was advised to take him for regular eye examinations to monitor his vision loss. But his family lived in a small village in India far from an eye hospital, and they weren’t able to travel to seek regular eye health care for him.

His vision continued to worsen, which meant he was likely to struggle with learning when he became old enough to attend school.

Five years later, a vision centre was established in Sahaspur close to Mohammad’s home. His father took him to the vision centre, where he was diagnosed with refractive error and given a pair of custom prescription eyeglasses. Thanks to our donors, Mohammad can see clearly and has the potential for a much brighter future.

When Blessing was four years old, she was playing near a pile of burning trash in her home village in Ghana when an explosion occurred. A piece of metal became embedded in her eye.

Blessing was taken to a nearby hospital, where the doctor told her parents that she would lose her eye. They were overcome with grief for their daughter’s loss. “I wish this had happened to me and not my daughter,” her father said.

Although Blessing’s eye could not be saved, she still required surgery to remove the eye and avoid a life-threatening infection. Her parents struggled financially, and they knew they couldn’t afford the treatment, but they wouldn’t give up on their little girl.

When they took her to a nearby hospital, she was referred to Watborg Eye Services, an Operation Eyesight partner, where most of the cost of her surgery was covered. Blessing’s wound has healed, and she has been fitted with a prosthetic eye. The generosity of our donors saved this little girl’s life.

When Elina started to experience agonizing pain in her eyes, her options were limited. She lived in Munkala village in Zambia, more than 120 km away from a hospital, and her family couldn’t afford to travel there for her to see a doctor. They spent all they had looking for answers from traditional healers nearby, but Elina continued to suffer.

When Elina was discovered by Operation Eyesight, she was diagnosed with trachoma, a bacterial disease that leads to permanent blindness if it isn’t treated. Fortunately, she was diagnosed before she lost her vision. The surgery to treat her in-turning eyelashes and antibiotics to treat the infection were provided free of charge, thanks to our generous donors.

The following year, Elina’s vision had worsened, and she was diagnosed with cataracts. Once again, our donors made it possible for Elina to have surgery, this time to restore her vision.

Operation Eyesight’s mission is to prevent blindness and restore sight, and through support from our donors and partners, we were able to prevent blindness due to trachoma, and restore sight lost through cataracts for Elina. She now lives without pain, and she’s able to contribute to her family by cooking meals and walking to the nearby borehole to fetch clean water. Her life has been transformed, and she is smiling once again.

Roshni, from India, is a mother and grandmother who lived with poor vision as a result of bilateral cataracts. Living with her adult children and her son’s family, she was completely dependent on them to survive. With severe vision impairment, she was unable to do any work to contribute to the household. Her daughter, Sonam, couldn’t work outside the home, as her mother needed full-time care.

When Roshni was finally able to have cataract surgery, her vision was completely restored. She was once again able to work around the house and help with field work such as feeding the cattle. Roshni’s daughter, Sonam, was inspired by the incredible impact this sight-saving surgery had on her mother and their entire family. As Roshni no longer needed Sonam as a full-time caregiver, Sonam decided she wanted to help others the way her mother had been helped.

Sonam trained to become a community health worker, and she joined the Operation Eyesight project team in. In this role, Sonam conducts door-to-door surveys in communities near her own, screening people for eye conditions and referring them to a vision centre or hospital when further diagnosis or treatment are needed. Sonam’s visits provide hope for people who have been suffering with vision impairment, not knowing where to go for help. She also provides health education and assesses the health status of each member of the community, including pregnant women, new moms and children under the age of five.

Thanks to the help that Roshni received, her daughter is now providing eye health care to so many more people in need. Their family is thriving, and the effects of Sonam’s work in communities near her home will last for years to come.

Regina is a 36-year-old mother of five who lives in Zambia’s Sinazongwe district. To provide her family with clean water, she visited her village’s borehole every day until 2018, when the borehole became dysfunctional and stopped providing clean water. At that point, the next closest borehole was 10 kilometres away.

In communities like Regina’s, providing water is generally the responsibility of the women and children of the household. With such a long distance to travel to collect clean water, they were unable to do anything else, including attending school.

When they didn’t have enough clean water, they were forced to collect from unclean sources, and Regina’s household usually suffered from diarrheal diseases. They also faced the risk of contracting trachoma, a painful bacterial disease that can lead to permanent blindness. All this sickness and daily walking took its toll on Regina and her children, and it interfered with her children’s ability to get an education.

In 2020, Operation Eyesight rehabilitated the borehole in Regina’s village, transforming the lives of her and her children. Thanks to donor support of our borehole programs, Regina is able to collect clean water right in her own community. Her children are healthier and can attend school, and she has time to do other things, including working in her vegetable garden.

As a mother of eight children ranging from seven months to 13 years old, Pamela didn’t have time to be sick. Living in Zambia’s Sinazongwe district, she was responsible for hauling water, washing her family’s clothes, tending to the vegetable garden, preparing meals and looking after her youngest children.

Two years ago, Pamela started to notice her vision failing. She visited a local health facility and was given eye drops. Unfortunately, her condition continued to get worse. She became unable to walk to the community borehole to collect water without help from her children. Sometimes her children had to miss school because she needed their help with the household chores.

And as a woman in her early 30s, it was unusual to suffer from cataracts, so many people in her village believed her condition was the result of a spell cast by people she had offended. She was miserable, and she was devastated that she could no longer care for her children.

When she attended a church service one Sunday, Pamela heard about an outreach screening camp in her village. She attended the camp and was referred for surgery at Operation Eyesight’s partner Maamba General Hospital, where she was provided with cataract surgery free of charge thanks to the generosity of our donors.

Pamela is now hopeful for a better life for herself and her children. Her vision has been completely restored. She is very happy to be independent again, carrying out all the household chores that she did before to care for her family.