A pair of eyeglasses restores a girl’s future and independence!

Written by Admin, published on October 31, 2017 Donate Today
Ruth and her mother Dora are grateful for the support they received from kind people like you.

Ruth is an 11-year-old girl who lives with her family in a town in the Eastern Region of Ghana. Ruth’s father moved to Ghana’s capital city of Accra in search of new opportunities, and now Ruth lives with her mother and her two siblings in a room rented in an apartment compound.

Ruth’s mother Dora is the breadwinner of the family. She takes care of her family with the little profit she makes from selling food to the students at Ruth’s junior high school.

When our Operation Eyesight staff interviewed Ruth’s teachers, they said that she is a hard-working student. Sadly, Ruth had trouble with her vision, and her teachers told us that they knew she would excel at her studies if she could see the board better.

Ruth often complained of not seeing clearly from far away. She struggled to see the blackboard in her class even though she sat in the front row. Embarrassed, she had no choice but to ask her classmates if she could copy their notes.

Ruth’s mother and her teachers were saddened as they watched her struggle at school for more than four years. Unfortunately, Ruth’s mother wasn’t making enough money to afford treatment for her daughter. She felt helpless.

“I wondered why I could not see things that others could see. I was afraid I would go blind in the future!” Ruth said despairingly. What if she became a burden to her family? If she couldn’t see, she couldn’t study, and if she didn’t finish school, she wouldn’t be able to get a job when she was older. 

But then everything changed! One day, an eye doctor came to Ruth’s school to run a vision screening program. Ruth was diagnosed with refractive error. Yet, although the doctor assured Ruth that new eyeglasses would help her, at first she didn’t want them.

“People say that if you are young and you wear spectacles, your vision will only get worse. I was also worried my friends would laugh at me if I wore spectacles.”

After some counselling from the eye doctor, Ruth finally agreed to have her eyesight tested so a new pair of prescription eyeglasses could be ordered for her. Thanks to the generous donations of people like you, Ruth has since received her eyeglasses, completely free of charge to her family, and she’s so grateful!

“I am very happy. Now I know that I can do everything by myself. I want to thank the doctor and the generous people in Canada who made it possible for me to receive eyeglasses. God bless them for their kindness!

We can’t thank you enough for your support. There are other young girls like Ruth who need your help. You can donate to our prescription eyeglasses program today, and bring more lives like Ruth’s into focus!