Behind every intervention, there is a story. Behind every bandage removed, there is a person who recovers vision and hope. In the last surgery campaigns in Mali at the end of 2020, Eyes of the world collected the testimony of some people who opened their eyes again and filled their lives with light.
The surgical commission carried out in the Youwarou district was mainly made up of ophthalmologists from the Sominé Dolo Hospital in Mopti. This commission operated on 85 women and 91 men, with a total of 206 cataracts intervened, since several people had to have both eyes operated on.
Many of the patients had known that the Foundation organized this surgery campaign over the radio. Like Ba Binta, a 45-year-old woman who could no longer work making carpets because she couldn’t see, she heard on the radio that Eyes of the world was carrying out a campaign; she underwent surgery and can now see and knit again. Or like Diaby Dado, 56, who had been blind for two years and, thanks to the fact that her son heard the radio message, successfully operated on cataracts in both eyes and thus returned to see what she most wanted: her grandchildren.
Taore Drissa, a 27-year-old, also benefited from this campaign. He had been seeing worse and worse for five years until he stopped distinguishing people from more than a meter away. The doctor in his town informed him of the Eyes of the world surgery commission, and his brother accompanied him: “They operated on both eyes very quickly and without pain. I can see everything very well. I will be able to help my brothers in the rice fields, and my wedding will be coming up soon. Now I am more useful, and I no longer bother the children to bring me anything. I’m very happy. I h
ave no words.”
The other surgery campaign that Eyes of the world organized in Douentza, in collaboration with the Al Farouk NGO, was also led by a local team. Cataract surgery was performed on 192 patients, 123 women, and 69 men, operating a total of 256 eyes. Including the case of a 10-month-old boy with LP (Light Perception).
Ajidjata Amadou Barry, a 65-year-old blind woman who for the last three years was dependent on her grandchildren to be able to move, was operated on in this commission. When she found out that the Foundation would perform interventions, her daughter took her to the hospital for surgery, and now she can see again. She no longer works, but she is independent in doing housework and errands, and, above all, she is so happy that she can once again “make people laugh by telling my stories.”