“If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else,” said American baseball player Yogi Berra – a man as famous for his confusing quips as for his sports abilities.

However, that statement might also represent the damage that lack of awareness can cause – and indeed, has caused! – in preventing blindness. If you don’t know what eye care options are available, how can you help yourself?

Take Asana for example. Asana, 57, lives with her husband Issah and their children in the town of Kasoa in Ghana’s Central region. Asana and Issah are comfortably middle class, enjoying an income from their rental properties. Issah is retired from his career as a carpenter, while Asana operates a provision shop (what Canadians would call a convenience store).

There was one big problem: Asana’s left eye suffered an accident a few years ago, when she was hit in the face by a hanging waist belt. Within a year, she started experiencing vision problems as a cataract formed in that eye due to the trauma. However, as long as she could see with her right eye, she managed to cope.

Then, to her dismay, she started to experience blurriness and loss of vision in her right eye too. Her vision became poor – so poor that she was forced to ask one of her daughters to manage her shop.

Asana became very alarmed. She and Issah visited a hospital in the Accra district, where she was diagnosed with bilateral cataracts. However, as is common in Ghana, the hospital didn’t have an ophthalmologist or cataract surgeon, or equipment to perform eye surgery. Asana was referred to another hospital some distance away.

Tired and discouraged, Asana and Issah were on the way home, when suddenly Issah saw a signpost for Watborg Eye Services. They decided to stop there before making the journey to the other, more distant hospital.

Issah and Asana didn’t know it at the time, but they had made a very good decision. Built in 2012 by Operation Eyesight’s generous donors, Watborg Eye Services is a high quality surgical eye hospital that serves about one million residents in the region.

At Watborg, optometrist Rasheed Quainoo discovered Asana could only count fingers held in front of her at a half-meter length (less than 20 inches). He diagnosed her with cataracts in both eyes, and recommended surgery. He told Asana and Issah that like all Operation Eyesight’s hospital partners, Watborg’s services are free for those who are unable to pay, and cost-recovery for those who can afford it. Recognizing their own relative wealth, the couple paid the fee for surgery.

Good news! After surgery on both eyes, Asana’s vision returned to an excellent state. With her sight restored, she is now back managing her shop and selling to her community as before. She has recommended Watborg to friends and family, some of whom have started accessing these local eye health services.

Asana and Issah are grateful for Operation Eyesight’s donors who built Watborg Eye Services in their region, and delighted that they discovered this quality eye hospital, literally on the side of the road. Their experience might echo another wisecrack from Yogi Berra, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”

Read more about our work at Watborg here.

The post Following the signs to eye health appeared first on Operation Eyesight.

Aging is a fact of life. Hair greys, limbs stiffen, skin wrinkles. We don’t like it, but we generally accept it. But you may be surprised to learn: your fate does not necessarily have to include blindness due to cataract!

Let me tell you about Papa Kojo, an 82-year old farmer who has lived almost his entire life in the village of Gomoa Brofoyeduru, located in the Central region of Ghana. He grows cassava, groundnuts, plantains and beans to survive.

Papa Kojo started losing his sight 10 years ago. “Everything started becoming cloudy. I finally accepted the fact that as you grow older, you become blind. It is common in my community, and many people my age complain of the same problem.”

While he may have accepted his situation, Papa Kojo found life becoming more difficult as his sight degenerated.

“In the past two years, I had to be led everywhere. It was difficult for me, since I had to depend on others to get things done and even help me go out. I was devastated. My hair and beard grew so tall and bushy that children used to run away in fear anytime they saw me. I thought I was going to die from my blindness.”

However, Papa Kojo noticed that there were other people, older than he, in his village who were not blind. When he asked a local health worker about them, he learned they had cataract operations to restore their sight. “I was not convinced until I met a neighbour who was in the same condition as me and who recovered after visiting the eye hospital.”

Finally, he put his skepticism aside, and agreed to let his daughter lead him from Gomoa Brofoyeduru to a nearby Operation Eyesight-supported hospital, Watborg Eye Services. There, cataract operations were performed on both eyes. Despite his age, his vision had returned!

Today, Papa Kojo is able to see very well – in fact, he says his sight is even better than it was before. He and his family are very grateful to Operation Eyesight’s donors for bringing his eyesight back to him. He enjoys farming again, and says his goal is to be the best farmer in his village. He is a living testament to the fact that advanced age does not have to result in blindness.

“I can see clearly now! I feel good as I do not need to depend on people to get things done or move around. I say thank you, and God bless you for giving me my life back.”

Learn more about cataracts here. And no matter how old you are, be sure to visit a professional for regular eye exams. Remember, age-related aches and pains may come and go, but cataracts don’t have to happen to you!

The post The facts of life DON’T have to include blindness appeared first on Operation Eyesight.

What if you were destitute, blind and alone in a foreign country where no one spoke your language? How would you survive? This is the story of two friends, Alhaji and Diallo, and how their lives changed for the better, thanks to Operation Eyesight’s generous donors.

Alhaji had cataracts a few years ago, and fortunately, was able to make his way to Watborg Eye Hospital in Ghana, where his vision was restored free of charge through Operation Eyesight funding.

Because he was so happy with the results of his surgeries, Alhaji became a strong advocate for the hospital. Not only did he encourage neighbours and friends with eye problems to visit the doctors, he took the time to accompany them when he could.

One day, Alhaji arrived at Watborg with a man who was not only blind, but who wasn’t able to communicate with staff or patients in any common language or dialect. Fortunately, Alhaji had managed to converse with the man in broken French, and was able to tell the staff his name was Diallo.

Originally from the African country of Mali, Diallo was blind in the right eye from an injury he had sustained as a young boy herding cattle. As he grew older, his vision began to worsen in his left eye as well. Diallo told Alhaji he was too frightened to see a doctor – how would he survive if something went wrong and he lost sight in his other eye?

His fear held him back, and his vision got worse, to the point where he could not even go to the washroom unassisted. Finally, all that was left for him to do was beg. Diallo decided to travel to Ivory Coast and later Ghana, hoping to survive as a blind beggar.

When begging outside Ghana’s capital city of Accra, he was fortunate to meet Alhaji, who brought him to Watborg. After staff assessed Diallo’s condition, he underwent surgery. The results were positive, and now, he is able to see much better than before!

Today, Diallo and Alhaji tell others in their community about the skilled doctors who brought vision back to their lives. They bring to the hospital people who otherwise would have remained blind and who probably would be begging in the streets. The two friends are very grateful to donors like you who changed their lives. Thank you!

To learn more about the Watborg Eye Services, the hospital that made Diallo’s surgery possible, click here.

The post That’s what friends are for… appeared first on Operation Eyesight.

Since the early stages of diabetes show few symptoms, regular eye exams are a must. To help avoid blindness, be sure to see an eye health professional today!

Let me tell you about a woman who is happy she did just that. Victoria is a 44-year old mother of four who lives in Senya Breku, a coastal town in the Central region of Ghana. Victoria supported her family as a fishmonger until she started losing her sight three years ago. Last year, her vision got worse, and she became unable to work.

“Because of my poor sight, I could not continue to work, so life was very difficult. I could not pay the rent in the house where we lived and we were evicted. Our children were sent away from school because we could not afford the school fees,” she explains. “We visited several prayer camps and witch finders because it was difficult to understand what was happening to us. I thought I would be blind forever.”

Fortunately, Victoria talked to a neighbour who had been blind with cataracts, before visiting nearby Watborg Eye Hospital and regaining sight. She courageously decided to visit the hospital, where doctors discovered the root cause of her blindness was diabetes mellitus, or “sugar disease,” as she calls it.

“I was told I got cataracts because I have sugar disease. The interesting thing is that as a result of my cataract, they discovered my sugar disease,” she says, smiling.

Victoria started treatment for diabetes, and bilateral cataract surgery was performed on first one, then both her eyes. She was able to use government health insurance for her first surgery, and a donation from a generous Operation Eyesight donor paid for the other. She is thankful that she could start up her business again, and her children are back in school!

“Now I can see, and I feel better because I am under treatment for my sugar disease. I feel good and we are happy. Now I can support my family and not depend on people,” she says. “I would like to say thank you for saving my sight and my life. Indeed, sight is life!”

If you have any of these warning signs, the Canadian Diabetes Association recommends you have an eye health professional check your eyes.

• blurred vision
• flashes of light in the field of vision
• sudden loss of vision
• blotches or spots in vision

The post Blindness from ‘sugar disease’: Be aware and be safe! appeared first on Operation Eyesight.