Kamlesh and Nanalal are brothers. Kamlesh is 10 years old and Nanalal is just seven years old. They live in a small house with their grandfather, mother and three other siblings in a village in India’s Udaipur district.
At a young age, both boys had severe visual impairment, to the point that they would often fall, bump into things and into other people! The poor brothers couldn’t concentrate at school because they couldn’t see the board, and after a while they didn’t even want to go to school anymore.
“We would be called blind in school, and we couldn’t take it. We didn’t want to be made fun of. Our classmates used to laugh at us and tease us all the time. It was depressing! Eventually we weren’t even invited to play with them.”
The brothers’ family is very poor, and they couldn’t afford to take them to the hospital for treatment. Sadly, their father passed away a year ago due to tuberculosis, and the family spent all their savings on his treatment at the time. Now, their mother is the breadwinner of the family and she works as a daily wage labourer. The family has a bit of land which their grandfather farms to make a little extra money.
Kamlesh and Nanalal lost hope for their future. Without their sight, they couldn’t concentrate at school, and without an education, they couldn’t find work to help support their family.
But one day, everything changed!
A Community Health Worker trained by Operation Eyesight went door-to-door to inform the village that there would be a pre-screening camp for eye health issues held in their village. When the health worker saw the boys, he personally brought the them and their mother and grandfather to the screening. It wasn’t long before they were diagnosed with cataracts in both eyes.
They were immediately referred for cataract surgery at the Alakh Nayan Mandir hospital, free of charge to the family… all thanks to the generosity of big-hearted supporters like you!
Since their surgeries, their vision has improved significantly. Now they can see again!
“We were so scared! We would have had to depend on our brothers to help us for the rest of our lives. But now we are very happy! Now no one makes fun of us. We can see everything clearly. We have many friends now, and we love to go to school!”
Their mother and grandfather are happy too. They’ve even become ambassadors for eye health!
“We’re very grateful and indebted to the community health worker for saving the future of our children. It is like magic to us. We thought their condition wasn’t treatable. Now we also encourage people to get their eyes checked, and we call the health worker whenever we find somebody who has problems with their eyes.”
We can’t thank you enough for giving Kamlesh and Nanlal the Gift of Sight. Thanks to you, these brothers have hope for a brighter future. Sadly, there are many other children like them who are living in darkness, but your support can change that! Please consider making a donation to our cataract surgery program to give more families hope for a brighter future – For All The World To See!