Unique stories to inspire everyone to #LOVEYOUREYES

In the distant hills of Parbat, Kusma, 76-year-old Laute Damai lived in darkness for years. Cataracts advanced on him slowly, and for the past year, he had been blind. He used to be a self-reliant man but now relied completely on his wife for even the simplest things—eating, mobility, and going to the toilet. His children, whom he had raised with affection, had long left him, never visiting or calling to ask about him. 

Hope knocked on the door of Laute one day in the shape of an eye camp organized by Himalaya Eye Hospital and Nepal Netra Jyoti Sangh. At his wife's insistence, Laute went to the camp, nervous but optimistic. The physicians, after a thorough examination, told him that surgery would restore his eyesight. 

The operation was successful. The bandages were pulled off the next day, and light shone in his eyes. He blinked, adjusting the light, and for the first time in years, he finally saw the face of his wife—the lady who never abandoned him. Moved to tears, tears welled in his eyes. 

"Now, I can do everything myself!" he exclaimed with joy. The burden on his wife had been lifted, and with his eyesight back, he felt as if he had been granted a second life. 

Laute returned home, not as a helpless old man, but as an individual who could once more live with dignity. His change from darkness to light was a testament to the power of care and kindness. 

Video Link: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1EWcBwnHsF/ 

“For 26 years, my world was shrouded in blurriness. I was born in the Mbeya region of Tanzania, and from the very beginning, I was unable to see clearly if at all. I lived in perpetual night, feeling my way through life, relying on my other senses to navigate the world,” says Anastazia.  

While Anastazia knew the weight of her 6-month-old son in her arms, she’d never seen him, due to bilateral cataract blindness. After ophthalmologists removed bandages following a successful surgery, his face came into view. 

“The joy of seeing my baby was overwhelming, but it was only the beginning. When asked what I most wanted to see next, my answer was immediate: my 7-year-old daughter. I had spent years imagining what she looked like, but now, I would finally get to see her with my own eyes. The thought of seeing her smile, her laughter, and the way she moves filled me with an indescribable excitement.” 

“The challenges I faced before were immense. Simple tasks like fetching water or cooking were hazardous. I couldn't contribute to my household, which made me feel like I was a burden. But now, with sight, all of that has changed. The surgery has given me a chance to live a life I never once dreamed of.” 

Since 1995, Cure Blindness Project with partners has restored sight to more than 1.6 million people. The NGO also expands local capacity through training, provides infrastructure and equipment, and establishes prevention programs to stop treatable conditions from progressing to blindness. 

Dr. Ana Lucía Asturias was honored with the Else Kröner Fresenius Award for Development Cooperation in Medicine 2024. In her capacity as Senior Physician for Pediatric Ophthalmology for Unidad Nacional de Oftalmología, Guatemala, she received the award in distinguished acknowledgment of her project “Retinopathy of Prematurity in Guatemala”, a programme she developed to prevent premature infants from going blind. The award was endowed with 100,000 euros and is among the most renowned distinctions in the field of development cooperation in medicine. The formal award presentation ceremony was held on October 15th, 2024, at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. 

The Retinopathy of Maturity programme has been implemented with the support of the Christian Blind Mission (CBM) since 2019. Key mainstays within the programme are the screening and treatment of preterm infants and the active use of telemedicine. 

“With this year’s award, we are acknowledging an outstanding project in child health. Through straightforward and very effective measures such as extensive screenings, a project that can distinctly improve children’s health” Dr. Jochen Bitzer, responsible for humanitarian funding at EKFS. 

CBM, a supporter of the programme since 2019, nominated the project for the award. “We are very pleased about this award. With the work they do, Dr. Ana Lucía Asturias and her team contribute substantially toward reducing preventable visual impairments and blindness in children in Guatemala.” Dr. Rainer Brockhaus, CEO, CBM. 

See documentary here: Else Kröner Fresenius Award for Development Cooperation in Medicine 2024 - YouTube 

Read more about the Retinopathy of prematurity project in the CBM Eye Health Annual Report 2024; https://www.cbm.org/dam/jcr:4384e5f7-16c3-475a-8a1c-53fff924dab5/CBM%20Eye%20Health%20Annual%20Report%202024.pdf  

As the title suggests, the story is about a loving mother who is visually impaired and her son who appeared to glance/look into the uncertainties of his future, hoping for the best there is. 
 
This mother and child belong to the Jahai community (indigenous people) who live in the Royal Belum Rainforest Reserve, Malaysia. Most if not all are shy, especially when requested to pose in front of the camera. 
 
It was the 2nd day of our trip to Royal Belum to capture some portraits and their lifestyle. The mother and child pair were sitting close when I made a request for their photo to be taken. Her command of language was minimal but enough to make us understand each other. The village chief was also present and that helped a lot. Only then that I knew about her predicament. 
 
Most of the aid given to the Jahai community were in the form of food, clothing and general health screening. It came to my knowledge that there need to be more and specific eye/vision health screening among the folks in the community. I bet there are many children who have visual problems in their classes. 

Stoic and silent, Paul, 90, sits in the van en route to City Eye Hospital. He’s scheduled for free sight-restoring surgery supported by Cure Blindness Project. It’d been three years since he’d been able to see his children’s faces. He desperately wants the surgery but he is afraid.  

If anyone understands the fear and isolation of being blind, it’s Stevenson. He’d been unable to see until recently. City Eye Hospital in Nyeri, Kenya performed cataract surgery on his left eye. He is returning to the hospital to have his right eye corrected.   

“Since I was helped, I want to help others,” explains Stevenson, 82.  

Stevenson assigns himself in charge of Paul’s care: holding his hand and leading him to the pre-op testing stations, sitting beside him as they wait.  

Stevenson enters the operating theater first. Twenty minutes later he’s done. Paul waits patiently for his turn.   

“The doctors will fix you,” Stevenson says, gently patting Paul’s back. “There is nothing to be afraid of. Tomorrow when we can see again, we dance.”  

As promised, there is dancing. And a little singing. The two celebrate together and staff members join in. It’s difficult not to dance when joy fills the room. 

I was part of a team conducting school vision screening at various schools within driving distance of our base for 2 weeks at Makeni, in Sierra Leone. On this day we were visiting Mayolor town about 14km away. We screened 274 children and 52 adults on this day, which included most of the teachers. On arrival at each school we would meet with the headmaster and senior teachers and explain our need for suitable buildings to undertake the screening process. Inevitably this entailed rearranging one or two classrooms to suit our needs. One for carrying out the initial vision and eye health checks and another for performing a sight examination for those referred from the screening process. The image depicts one of the children having his vision checked using an E chart. It is not obvious in the photo but he has covered his left eye with a cupped hand and so we are checking how far down he can correctly identify the tumbling E letter orientation. By pointing his free hand up, down, to the left or right it becomes a very quick and accurate method of confirming an individuals unaided sight. In this case you may notice that some of his classmates have started to laugh. This is because he was the first child in the class to easily get to the bottom line with no effort, and all his friends were amazed at how confident he was.

I was volunteering on my 19th eye care project, most of them using my Optometry expertise with the UK charity Vision Aid Overseas. Increasingly I have balanced the Optometry aspects of the trips with taking images to highlight this much needed work. It is great to know that for at least some individuals we have been able to help. Good sight means finishing school, it means seeing well enough to mark homework, to count money at the market, to see your grand children properly. We should all have the right to sight and the means to have it assessed wherever we may live in the world. 

What is it about this image that you love? 

It is a picture of a couple from a very rural area in Timor-Leste after Cataract surgery on their both eyes. What I love the most is their smiles when they know that everything was going well, and there is hope for them to see again.  

Do you remember anything about the subject? For example, were the patients shy to have their pictures taken, funny, curious? From memory, these two are husband and wife. Do you remember anything about them, their bond? 

Well, actually I was planning to take their picture after the surgery, because it is rare to see a couple together come for operation. It was a little bit funny, because a lady was shy to be hugged by her husband and didn’t want to take photo. We took many photos, but this photo was good in comparison with others.  

This couple live in a village far away from the capital. They live alone by themselves in a small house. Once their relative came to visit and found that they couldn’t see. For this purpose, their relative brought them to the eye clinic in the capital for further consultation and treatment.  

Do you recall anything about the location on that day? For example, was the hospital busy? What was happening behind the scenes? 

Eye clinic is the only eyes services available in the country. So, all  of cases come to eye clinic. On that day, there were a lot of patients for consultation. One of the Eyecare nurse in the clinic came to inform me that there was a couple with bilateral hypermature cataract and need for consultation. They came on Friday morning. After the examination and investigation done, I planned for bilateral SICS in one session for both. I explained about the pre-op, intra-op and post-op procedures and also self-care after the operation to the relative. The couple was afraid in the beginning but accepted for operation after a detailed explanation about the benefit after the operation. After their acceptance, I straight plan for the surgery the next Monday. And at the next day, they both were very happy because after years, they can see again.  

What about shooting this project did you find interesting? For example, the sheer need for eye care services? 

It was interesting to shoot this project. At the same time, we used the photo to encourage those people in rural area to come for eye consultation. Because there is still lack of knowledges of people about eye health and many of them still afraid to get operated their cataracts. And I do believe that in the next few years, the quality of the eye health services in Timor-Leste will be better.  

Photographer Neil:

"I like the fact that we were shown that classroom…at random…and it was full for students, and from the doorway where I took the photo there was a direct line of sight to her, and I think that not only was she the only one wearing glasses but she was perfectly framed in the classroom for the subsequent photo. We didn’t have to position her, light her or create the composition…it was totally natural. Serendipitous. 

She had a lovely smile. She looked at us at first as did all the others, and then whilst I fiddled with the camera and took some test shots everyone just carried on listening to the teacher and then when we were ready I just waved at her and smiled and she smiled back…and then I took the photo. Again, she was totally natural and seemed very mature.  

We had just come from a large eye clinic and brought to the school just to get see if we could get some shots. Our goal was to find some students and choreograph a shot with them, ask them some questions etc. It was a large school and we arrived 10 minutes before their break…lunch I think…so in fact the only thing we achieved with the visit was this scene. No children were being screened at the time…I think it was a “let’s see what we find” kind of location. 

I was there with a couple of representatives from Operation Eyesight, and my cameraman colleague, Miguel Gutierrez, and we both had cameras. We met someone from the school who looked into a couple of classrooms and let us in. We had about 5 minutes before the bell went off for lunch so we just looked in the first classroom, stood close to the doorway and this is what we got.  

For this project we filmed in Kenya and India. We filmed the young and the old…the most vulnerable groups of course. I was particularly struck by the important role that children have in educating and supporting their families. In countries like Canada we tend to consider healthy eyesight as primarily a benefit to the recipient only….”you need glasses”…so I ensure my children have can study properly and enjoy life like everyone else.  

But in places where Operation Eyesight operates, having healthy vision in children has immediate societal benefits because the children play an important role in the family and community.  

They work around the house, in the yard, they feed the animals or help out in the fields. They go for food, and they care for the elders in multi-generational households. In Kenya, where trachoma is a big problem, the children learn about clean water and they go home and educate THEIR parents on the importance of clean water. The young are literally the teachers. 

So the community-led initiatives that we filmed, and the “hand-up, not hand-out’ approach of organizations like Operation Eyesight was extraordinary to film. These are huge community efforts (and communal living in these countries involves far more inter-dependence then here), and there was genuine pride at all levels when a cataract operation succeeded, or when a child got glasses. Because now these people were no longer burdens that needed constant help. They could now contribute. It’s literally a 100% reversal in fortune for the the person, their families and the community. "

Kasturi Bishi, 64, lives with her husband in a small village in Odisha, India. The couple worked as blacksmiths, making and selling iron tools to earn a simple living. Their routine fell apart when Kasturi began losing her vision to cataracts. She couldn’t work, and her husband stayed home to care for her. With no income, treatment felt impossible. 
 
Hope came when they heard about a free eye screening camp supported by Trilochan Netralaya and Cure Blindness Project. There, she was identified with mature cataracts in both eyes and referred to Trilochan Netralaya for surgery. 
 
With quiet courage, Kasturi underwent the procedure—free of cost, with support from Cure Blindness Project. Today, she can see clearly again. She’s back to work, back on her feet, and filled with joy and gratitude.