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.

The whole family depends on Hira’s son, who works as a labourer to make enough for them to get by. To help out, Hira gardens and sews clothing for the family, while taking care of her two granddaughters.

She was happy she could contribute at home, but she was able to help less and less over time, as her vision dimmed. She felt like there was some invisible film over her eyes that she couldn’t blink away, and it only got worse. Two years later, she was completely blind.

“I was too afraid to seek treatment,” says Hira. “My sister had cataract surgery done that left her blind, and she died blind. I was so afraid the same thing would happen to me.”

But our donors made it possible to help Hira through her fear.

Two community health workers arrived at Hira’s home and screened her eyes. They explained that her condition could be treated, and they counselled her on the procedures that would restore her sight. Then they referred her to an Operation Eyesight-established vision centre for examination.

Though she was afraid, Hira did go to the vision centre, where she was diagnosed with bilateral cataracts. She was then referred to Nepal Eye Hospital for surgery.

Hira still wasn’t convinced. “I was so afraid, but the community health workers introduced me to an older man who had received sight-restoring cataract surgery himself. His story calmed me, and finally I felt brave enough to get treated.”

Now, thanks to the support of eye health heroes like YOU, Hira’s sight has been restored!

“I am very happy about the treatment I received! Now I can do my daily activities on my own. My family can concentrate on their work, and I can help them when they need me.” 

Hira is now an eye health advocate in her own community! She is so grateful to the community health workers and the doctor who helped her regain her sight.

And most of all, she’s grateful to kind people like you who made it all possible!

Thank you so much for helping people like Hira get their lives back through the precious gift of sight! There are still thousands more women like Hira who need your help. Donate today and become an eye health hero.

The post From fearful blindness to joyous sight appeared first on Operation Eyesight.

Across India and Nepal, 15 partner hospitals marked their achievements in the elimination of avoidable blindness and raised awareness about eye health. Their biggest accomplishment? The declaration of a spectacular 281 avoidable blindness-free villages by eight hospitals. Wow!

Here’s what else they did:

• Inaugurated four Vision Centres. Two are from Fateh Bal Eye Hospital in Nepal and two from Sewa Sadan Eye Hospital Trust and the Sundarban Social Development Centre, both in India.
• Three hospitals in India conducted screening programs and dispensed eyeglasses in their project areas. They screen a total of 565 individuals, dispensed 58 pairs of prescription eyeglasses and referred 78 patients for eye surgery.
• Our partners at Sewa Sadan Eye Hospital Trust and the Vittala International Institute of Ophthalmology held rallies to increase education about eye health, which were well received.

Please take a moment and share in their warm glow of accomplishment. We wish you could have been there, but we’ll have to settle for a great big THANK YOU for making all this work possible.

The post World Sight Day? How about World Sight Week! appeared first on Operation Eyesight.

We’re thrilled to have been named one of the Top 10 Impact Charities of 2018 by Charity Intelligence Canada. Just as for-profit organizations have an obligation to their shareholders, we have an obligation to our donors. We invest donor funds carefully and efficiently to create the long-term changes that will help eliminate avoidable blindness.

This recognition is a significant milestone on our shared path to help more people who are needlessly suffering, and to make a generational impact that will ensure the communities we work in will have access to the eye care they need today, tomorrow and in the future.

Charity Intelligence’s impact rating is determined by analyzing the measurable return for every dollar donated. They hold charities accountable for the support they receive from Canadian donors, and they observe that people will generally give more to charities when they are confident their donation will make an impact. Operation Eyesight made the list by eliminating avoidable blindness at the community level, through our Hospital-Based Community Eye Health Program model.

When assessing our impact, we look at how well we are meeting our strategic goals. We look at the number of patients treated, how much local capacity is being built and how well our hospital partners are progressing towards operational sustainability.

We create eye health-seeking behaviour in the communities we work in through outreach and education programs, and we empower communities to take responsibility for their eye health needs. This plays a vital role in helping to ensure our projects are sustainable and that people will continue to seek help even after our formal partnership with the hospital has ended.

The ripple effect is incredible! Kids can see to read and go to school, giving them the opportunity to get an education and later find a job and provide for themselves. Parents can return to work and provide for their families. Grandparents can watch their grandkids grow up, and their grandkids don’t need to stay home to care for them. This way, children can get an education and thrive in the future. Entire communities are transformed with the gift of sight!

We can’t thank our donors enough for supporting our sight-saving program model. Thanks to people like you, we’ve declared over 1,000 villages avoidable blindness-free in India and Nepal. And we’re not done yet! We’ve had great success in the communities we work in, but there are still millions of people who need our help. With your help, we can reach them – For All The World To See!

 Click here to donate and make an IMPACT.

The post We’re one of the Top 10 Impact Charities of 2018! appeared first on Operation Eyesight.