Help us cure blindness in Ethiopia

In Ethiopia, an estimated 1.6 million people are blind, many due to untreated cataracts, a condition that can be sured with a ten-minute surgery and under $25 in material costs.

Medeset lost his sight at a very young age, and by the time he was in the third grade, he was completely blind. He dropped out of school and, for a year, stayed at home, feeling overwhelmed with helplessness and anxiety about his future. He felt like a burden to his family, and his life seemed to have no purpose. Thanks to a Cure Blindness Project Outreach in Wolida, Medeset now sees.

"The blindness that darkened my hope about the future of my son is now gone. Thank you, thank you," exclaims the father of 10-year-old Mohamed. When Mohamed hurt his eye while cutting a tree to feed his family’s goats, his dad knew it was serious. For months, his son’s injured eye would tear constantly. Then it swelled completely shut. A cloudy matter spread across his eye preventing the boy from seeing. Despite taking Mohamed to a nearby health eye clinic, no solution was available. Surgical outreaches such as the one between Cure Blindness Project and the Bete-Abraham Eye Clinic in partnership with Kemisse Hospital provide specialized care at no or low-cost to patients. And allow children such as Mohamed to regain his sight.

90-year-old Umer Muhamed from Jile Dhumuha had never seen his grandchildren. Blind in one eye from an insecticide chemical splash and blind in the other from a cataract, he depended on his family for help with daily necessities like eating and going to the bathroom. “I regret being a burden to my family,” he says. His daughter learned of the recent Kemisse outreach supported by Cure Blindness Project in collaboration with Bete Abraham Eye Clinic and made plans to attend. “I want to see my grandchildren,” he smiles as doctors remove his surgical bandages.

Cure Blindness Project works to build local capacity by providing training to health care providers. One example is the cornea fellowship sub-speciality consultancy work (shown in this photo) that's allowing hands-on training for cornea transplant surgeries and amniotic membrane grafts. Hands-on training is supplemented with classroom lectures to strengthen local knowledge further.