Organisation: Cure Blindness Project
Location: Kenya

“The doctors will fix you. There is nothing to be afraid of. Tomorrow when we can see again, we dance.” 
At Cure Blindness Project, there is often dancing. And a little singing. Here, patients celebrate together with staff members joining in after bandages are removed following a free cataract surgery. It’s difficult not to dance when joy fills the room.

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.