A Son’s Gift to his Mother...Happy Early Mother’s Day!

Tadelech Bekele after successful cataract surgery.

We wanted to take a small break from COVID related news to wish all mothers out there a wonderful upcoming Mother’s Day! 

Here’s a sweet little story to conclude our cataract series and uplift your spirits as we celebrate our mothers this weekend. 

Tadelech Bekele is a 50-year-old woman who traveled close to 60 kms from Aduna Wereda with her son to get the cataract surgery at our annual campaign. She said her quality of life was severely affected as she couldn’t help her family and tend to her house properly after she lost sight of one of her eyes due to cataract. She attempted to get treatment in the past many times but was told her case wasn’t ready for surgery so she had given up hope. But, when her son heard about WEEMA’s cataract campaign, he insisted on taking her. Even as she waited for her surgery, we found her beaming with a smile and not an ounce of fear. When asked what she’s most happy about she said: “I’m just so happy my son brought me here so I can finally get cured.” Indeed she was cured the next day! A well deserved gift from a son to his mother! 

Photo credit: Martha Tadesse (@Marthinolly)

Tadelech preparing for cataract surgery.

A Father of Eight Regains his Sight and his Independence

Ergicho Godebo, father of eight after successful cataract surgery

We are keeping everyone in our thoughts during this difficult time of COVID-19 crisis. WEEMA is working with our team in Ethiopia to help increase awareness and cautionary methods in our regions of work. We will share more on these efforts next week. For today, here is an uplifting story from one of our cataract patients: 

In WEEMA’s third feature of our 2020 Cataract Campaign patients, we are happy to share the story of Ergicho Godebo. 

Ergicho is a proud 60 year old farmer who traveled 2 hours by bus to make it to the cataract campaign. He wasn’t able to farm on his own for the past 6 years after he lost sight in both his eyes due to cataracts. Ergicho has 8 kids, some of which were forced to stay and help him with the family farm during the years when he had no sight. So, when he heard about this year’s campaign on the radio, he was excited to be part of it. 

Ergicho is now looking forward to regaining his independence and not being a burden to his family. WEEMA is happy to be part of such a campaign that not only positively impacts the lives of the patients themselves but their families and their communities at large, (allowing them to live dignified lives. )

Photo credit: Martha Tadesse (@Marthinolly)

Ergicho right after his successful cataract surgery.

Happy Belated International Women's Day!

Ari Aska of the Hamer tribe after successful cataract surgery

WEEMA wishes you a Happy belated International Women’s Day (March 8, 2020). In commemoration of this past Sunday, we wanted to share the beautiful story of one of our female patients from this year’s successful cataract campaign where we conducted more than 1000 surgeries in one week.  

 Ari Aska is a woman from the Hamer tribe of Ethiopia. The Hamer tribe live in Omo valley, about 115 km away from Kembata, where our cataract campaign was taking place. Ari was one of only four people from her tribe who decided to travel this far to get the cataract surgery. She lost sight in both her eyes many years ago, when her children were little. Now, when asked what she is most looking forward to, she said as she laughed “I can’t wait to go home and see how my children have changed. They will be so big now that I may not even recognize them after all these years.”  

 WEEMA is excited to see this campaign reaching people in isolated regions like the Omo valley. We hope to increase our cataract campaign accessibility for such communities in the future. 

Photo credit: Martha Tadesse (@Marthinolly)

Ari and other members of the Hamer tribe waiting to have their eye patches removed after surgery.

A Young Farmer's Journey to Regain His Sight

Mulatu Asefa with his vision restored!

WEEMA continues to celebrate our successful 2020 cataract campaign where we conducted surgeries for more than 1000+ patients. In the next few weeks, we’ll share a couple short stories to celebrate our patients’ journeys to regain sight: 

Mulatu Asefa is a young farmer in his early 30s. He lost sight in one of his eyes 6 years ago after suffering from an accident. He didn’t seek treatment for all these years because he thought his eye would heal on its own. He learned about how cataract is easily curable through a radio advertisement promoting our 2020 cataract campaign. He was ecstatic that this service was available and made the 2 hour trip to get this surgery. He is happy to be able to see with both eyes again, 6 years later.

The fear and lack of awareness around cataracts may often lead to patients with the easily curable case to not seek treatment. WEEMA is proud that this annual cataract campaign is not only organizing surgeries that can give back sight to the likes of Mulatu, but it is also raising awareness about cataracts and how it can easily be cured.

Asefa right before his cataract surgery

Asefa right after his cataract surgery

Over 1200 patients scheduled for cataract surgery!

Next week we will all be gathering at Hosanna General Hospital for the annual High Volume Cataract Surgical Campaign.  This will be our 6th campaign in partnership with the Himalayan Cataract Project and over 1200 patients have already been scheduled for surgery.

The photo above shows a crowd from one of the cataract screening events.  People learn about the screening by 4x4 vehicles driving through rural villages and blasting an announcement.  If interested in hearing what the announcement sounds like, click on the photo of the cars below.  

Please follow us on Facebook and Instagram as we will be posting regular updates from the campaign.

Thank you for supporting WEEMA- without you, this work would not be possible.

Patients gather at a Hadyia Health Center to be screened for cataract surgery.

CLICK ON THE PHOTO TO HEAR THE SCREENING ANNOUNCEMENT

(it will take you to a video)