It can be tough being a teenager at the best of times, but life is even more challenging when you cannot see properly!
Seventeen-year-old Lydia Kombortaa lives in Ghana, and had been complaining of poor eyesight since was a little girl. She couldn’t see the chalkboard at school and had resorted to copying lecture notes from her friends’ notebooks instead. Having to rely on others to get by was frustrating, not to mention embarrassing. But what choice did Lydia have?
Then, one day an optometrist from Ejura Government Hospital, one of Operation Eyesight’s partner hospitals in Ghana, conducted a vision screening at Lydia’s school. The optometrist discovered that Lydia had low vision and referred her to the hospital, where an eye examination revealed that Lydia had a very high myopia. Simply put, she required prescription eyeglasses to correct her near-sighted vision.
Lydia’s mother was worried. She was a widowed peasant farmer working hard to provide for her six children. How would she ever find the money to pay for a pair of eyeglasses?
But her worries soon faded away when she learned that Lydia would receive a brand new pair of eyeglasses free of charge, thanks to Operation Eyesight’s donors.
With her new eyeglasses, Lydia’s vision has improved immensely, and she can copy her own notes right from the chalkboard. Lydia and her mother are grateful to Operation Eyesight and its partner for this life-changing gift.
“I’m so happy that I can do things by myself without any assistance from my friends in school,” says Lydia. “Thank you!”
You can give the gift of sight and independence to more people like Lydia. A $20 gift can provide prescription eyeglasses for up to three people living in Africa or India. Please consider making a donation today.