Cataracts: Jerita can’t wait to see her family and cows



Cataracts remain the leading cause of blindness around the world. In countries with good public health care, cataracts can be treated with a straightforward and inexpensive surgical procedure. But in developing countries like Kenya, distance and a lack of trained eye care personnel make receiving sight-restoring surgery very difficult. Of the world’s 284 million visually impaired people, 90 percent live in the developing world.

Operation Eyesight Universal, a Canadian international development organization, has been providing sight-restoring surgery to millions of children, women and men as part of a strategy to achieve quality, comprehensive, sustainable eye care services. Operation Eyesight has been supported by Canadians since 1963, and currently has projects in India, Kenya, Zambia, Ghana and Rwanda.

Jerita Anabaka Wepukuli is one person in Kenya whose sight has been restored. Jerita, the matriarch of a family that includes six sons, six daughters, and 14 grandchildren, always had good eyesight, but lost her vision as cataracts took hold, leaving her almost totally blind. Her husband left her because of her blindness, and she had never seen the faces of her youngest grandchildren. But Jerita was able to go to Kitale Regional Hospital, one of Operation Eyesight’s partners in Kenya. There her cataracts were successfully removed, a surgery her family would not have been able to afford without the generosity of Operation Eyesight’s donors.

When she returned home, she was greeted joyously by the extended family, touching the children’s heads in order to recognize them. When asked what she would do next, she exclaimed. "Now that I’ve seen my family, I can go see my cows! I’ve missed them. I’m going to go and milk them."

Would you like to read more about Jerita’s story? Go to www.operationeyesight.com/successstories, or call or email for more information. Together, with the support of thousands of Canadians, we are winning the fight against avoidable blindness – for all the world to see.


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