Unique stories to inspire everyone to #LOVEYOUREYES

Anyone who sees Lorrayne’s wide smile cannot imagine the difficult life she had because of strabismus until she was 30. As a child, she faced a lot of bullying and hurtful nicknames filled with prejudice. In her youth, she was often asked uncomfortable questions like, “Where are you looking?” Lorrayne suffered, but there was nothing she could do. She wore an eye patch until she was 8, but it didn’t bring satisfactory results. She needed surgery but couldn’t afford the R$ 10,000 cost.

She consulted doctors during her teenage years, but the procedure she needed was considered cosmetic, and public health insurance didn’t cover it. She cried because of bullying, and her mother would always go to school to complain, but it was in vain.

The situation changed when Lorrayne discovered the Verter Institute, which made her surgery possible for free. The tears she shed after removing the bandages revealed the depth of her emotion after so long searching for a solution. She stopped wearing the dark-tinted glasses she used to hide her strabismus, stopped taking photos looking down, saw her self-esteem soar, and eventually became a volunteer at Verter, helping others who, like her, need free treatment.

Two years ago, Fatama's life began to darken. Her vision gradually became blurry, accompanied by intense headaches and dizziness that seemed endless. At first, she tried to ignore it, holding onto the hope that everything would improve over time. But the pain became unbearable, and the loss of vision prevented her from moving forward.

It was then that she decided to seek help. At the ophthalmology center of Bachir Saleh Hospital, they conducted several tests and discovered the cause of her suffering: cataracts. The only solution was surgery in Bechar.

Thanks to the support of the Eyes of the world foundation, Fatama was able to undergo surgery. One of her eyes healed completely, restoring her vision. In the other, glaucoma prevents her from seeing with total clarity, but still, her world has changed.

Fatama was able to see the faces of her loved ones again, the blue sky, and the landscapes she thought she had lost. She regained her independence and, with it, the joy of living.

We helped someone who, due to the loss of her vision, couldn’t see even a palm’s length away, now greet us from 20 meters away. Mrs. Ubaldina, affected by diabetes, lost her sight due to cataracts. At first, she resisted the idea of surgery, but over time, with the support of those around her, she decided to take the courageous step that would transform her life.

Two years later, thanks to the Eyes of the World Foundation, Mrs. Ubaldina underwent successful surgery that restored her vision, but more importantly, it restored her hope. With her sight regained, she decided to start a business selling empanadas. She prepares them with dedication, while her daughter fries them, as Mrs. Ubaldina is afraid to get too close to the fire for fear it could affect her vision.

This is an example of how support can change a life. Thanks to the surgery and her courage, Mrs. Ubaldina has regained not only her ability to see but also the dream of having a better future for herself and her family.

“I started my career in eye health because I saw the vast unmet need and inequities in access to care, and the potential for enormous impact. 
My goal is to bridge the gap between eye health policy and service delivery in underrepresented areas through research and advocacy. 
I’m committed to building a future where evidence and equity drive decision-making in eye care.” 

Emiliana Cabrera has always been surrounded by children. She raised 10 of her own and when they left home, she took a job as a janitor at the school in Qhora Qhora, a village at 3,000 meters above sea level near the city of Sucre in Bolivia. There, she unlocks the doors in the mornings, cleans the classrooms, sells sweets and sometimes also some home-cooked food. When GoodVision examines all the children for two days, the 53-year-old also wants an eye test because she complains of pain in one eye. The team is able to help her with reading glasses in the short term, but advises Emiliana to visit an eye clinic again soon.

This is what Bonita says, the mother of 9-year-old Edwin, who goes to school in Qhora Qhora near Sucre. The young woman is a single mother and has another small child. Together with them, she lives with her mother and an uncle. In the city, Bonita earns some money selling chicken, but this is usually not enough for all to survive. The Grandma herds sheep and bakes bread in a clay oven she built herself.

Many families in the area around Sucre live like this. Work is a scarce commodity here, the climate at 3,000 meters is harsh, as it gets bitterly cold at night and the sun burns the skin during the day.

For the young mother, it is fortunate that the school costs nothing and that GoodVision provides children with glasses free of charge.

Cecilia Diaz lives in the hills of the small Bolivian town of Quípima in the Boyacá region. All around her is an idyllic landscape. What is planted here seems to grow by itself: bananas, mangoes and several varieties of cocoa. So, the 49-year-old has her hands full: she cooks, takes care of the garden and looks after a few animals. She has raised four children of her own and two nephews, all of whom have now left home.

To get to the eye camp run by our project partner GoodVision, she had to walk

two hours down the mountain. But, she says, it was worth it, because the glasses now help her with all her everyday activities and she would have had to make a two-day trip to visit the optician.

Don Ruben waits patiently, perhaps because no one is waiting for him at home, as the

86-year-old lives alone in the mountain village of Turtur in the department of Boyacá. His 10 children and many grandchildren have been working in different places in Colombia for a long time. There is a huge rural exodus in Colombia, with over 80% of the country's 51 million inhabitants living in cities. Although Don Ruben now lives alone in the mountains, he is proud of all his children. They support his father and grandfather with a little money every month and so he manages to make ends meet. Only his eyes, he complains, are no longer keeping up. But of course, the GoodVision team has a solution for that!

Radhiya Devi is 35 years old and lives in Dhanbad, a town in the middle of the Jharkhand coalfield. The people here only know hard work in the mines. Radhiya collects coal every day, a tedious and dangerous job. 

The young woman had long had great difficulty seeing, especially in the dark. Walking home after a long day at work became a daily challenge. After she had her eyes tested at an eye camp organized by GoodVision she bought a pair of glasses. They make her life so much easier and safer, says Radhiya.

Surendra Sethi is 66 years old and lives in the village of Bira Pratapur in the state of Odisha in India. Surendra runs a small coconut stall on the side of the road where he sells around 50 coconuts a day and earns between 400 and 500 rupees. He uses this income to support himself and his wife.

Recently, Surendra has had increasing difficulty seeing up close - especially when counting money or reading. Thanks to a rural eye camp organized by GoodVision, he received a pair of glasses. Since then, his work has become much easier, and Surendra no longer gets confused with the change.

Pradeep Bhuiya, 32 years old and a laborer in the Dhanbad district of Jharkhand, is one of the many coal workers in the region. Some time ago, Bhuiya suffered a serious injury to his left eye at work. With no funds for treatment and no access to medical care in the remote area, his eyesight progressively deteriorated until he finally went completely blind in the affected eye. The cause was a traumatic cataract that developed because of the injury. Thanks to an eye camp organized by GoodVision, who collaborates with several eye clinics in this region, he was able to receive a free cataract surgery, which he gratefully accepted. Today, his sight has been fully restored.

Sahil Sethy is 10 years old and lives with his family in the slums of Bhubaneswar. His father irons clothes and his mother works as a domestic help. Due to an accident in his early childhood, Sahil has a severe visual impairment in his left eye. However, nobody noticed this as he was never examined. At elementary school, his parents noticed that their son held his head askew when reading and only looked with one eye, but neither they nor the teacher did anything about it. 

When GoodVision conducted an eye camp at Sahil's school, his condition was identified. He received an eye examination for the first time. Shortly afterwards, he was operated in one of GoodVision’s partner hospitals. The young boy is now attending a free vision school for support and the prognosis is positive: the 10-year-old will probably soon be able to see normally again with additional glasses.

We are delighted that through our school camps we can help children like Sahil, who still has many years of life and learning ahead of her, to regain full sight.

Samya Thada (left) is 74 years old, her sister Indramaya Thada 65. Both are having an eye test for the first time in their lives and both need reading glasses. They live in a remote mountainous region in eastern Nepal - where there are no spectacle stores and certainly no eye clinics. Together they have walked a long way to get to our eye camp. Now they are happy about their first pair of glasses.

Maili Nakarmi lives in the Nepalese mountain village of Lurpung, which was hit by the severe earthquake in Nepal in 2015. Many buildings were destroyed; the infrastructure was severely damaged and many houses in her village were also destroyed. The village was rebuilt with the help of German aid organizations, among others. 

Since the death of her husband three years ago, Maili has been living alone. She lives from a cow, four goats and some farming. It's not much, but enough to make ends meet - also because her two sons, who live in the city, also support their mother. The fact that help like that from GoodVision comes directly to the village is essential for women like Maili, because as a single woman she would have left her animals to have her eyes examined in the city.

Ratna Suwal is 75 years old, and his wife Chandramaya is 70. They have been married for 45 years. Their home is an old village house in the municipality of Roshi in the Nepalese Mountains. The couple live in seclusion with just one goat - they had to sell their buffalo three months ago because it had become too difficult for him to cut the grass. 

When GoodVision offered an eye camp in her remote mountain village, Chandramaya was very happy because she knew her eyesight had worsened over the years. A pair of reading glasses now helps her greatly in her daily life. She would never have undertaken the long journey to the city for this. That’s why it is especially important that eye screenings are provided in places where help rarely arrives.

Issaf Traoré spent decades navigating the streets of Ouagadougou as a professional chauffeur, his vision sharp behind prescription lenses. But when he retired, and his glasses wore out, he couldn’t afford to replace them. At 60, he found himself confined to the blurry outlines of a once-familiar city.

For five years, Issaf stayed close to home, relying on memory more than sight to move through the world. Then, one day, he noticed a small office on his street - GoodVision.

There, he received new glasses made by trained local technicians. In just one visit, the streets he once drove with confidence came back into focus.

Now, Issaf walks independently through Ouagadougou again. Every time he passes the GoodVision office, the team lights up - because they know what he’s regained isn’t just vision, but agency.

In a world where aging and poverty often shrink horizons, a pair of glasses restored his ability to move freely - and reminded us that clarity is a form of freedom.