Because of you… Yasodha can see!

8-year-old Yasodha from Nepal was a happy, outgoing little girl who dreamed of joining the police when she grew up.

But, something was wrong. She could not see the words her teachers wrote on the board – no matter how close she sat or how hard she squinted.

Yasodha’s loving, single father, Amit, was absolutely heartbroken at seeing his daughter struggling to read or move around the house because of her blinding cataracts. As the sole earner for the family, who also cared for his sick and aging mother, his salary as a security guard could barely buy enough food, let alone pay for cataract surgery.

Amit hoped and prayed that a kind-hearted person like you, would give sight back to his little girl.

Thanks to generous people like you, Amit’s prayers were answered when Yasodha was referred to a cbm-funded hospital in Biratnagar. Following several eye tests Ophthalmologist Dr Pawan confirmed that Yasodha would receive the sight-saving surgery she urgently needed the following day.

When asked about barriers for children like Yasodha to get treatment, Dr Pawan said: “I think, in our part of the world, people are concerned with their daily living. If they don’t work in the day, they won’t be able to eat at night. There is no stable job for them. So, priority becomes that they should go and work every day. School screening is part of what we do but the community screening is very important because if we don’t do community screening, these children will just stay inside the home and nobody is going to take care of them. Their parents don’t have time to take them to the hospital because in that period they will have to go and work to earn a living… That’s the scenario in our part of the world.”

Dr Pawan operated on Yasodha the following day, and her surgery was a success. After a night of rest her eye patch was removed and Yasodha could see!

“Both eyes of my daughter have now been successfully operated on. This would not have been possible without your support. I thank the hospital and cbm for this support. I am very happy and grateful,” says Yasodha’s father Amit.