By: CBM Australia
For Suman, growing up in a remote village in eastern Nepal, life took a sudden turn the year she turned five. She had just started first grade and was embarrassed to find she was having trouble reading the words on the blackboard.
As her vision became more and more blurry, Suman mustered the courage to tell her mum Deepa about her struggles. With tears streaming down her face, Suman admitted that she was struggling to keep up at school.
Knowing she didn’t have the money to take her to a doctor, Deepa told Suman to just try harder. And so, she struggled on.
Noticing the young girl’s struggles, Suman’s teacher visited her parents, kindly suggesting they take her to an eye clinic and get glasses to improve her vision. But without money to pay, Suman’s mum didn’t go. Her husband earned just enough to survive as a day labourer in India – and could only return home once a year.
Watching her daughter’s vision deteriorate, Deepa felt bad but didn’t know where to turn for help.
Suman failed to pass first grade – and eventually her eyesight forced her to drop out of school. Since then, Suman has hardly ever stepped out of her home.
Now eight years old, she spends her days sitting in the yard or helping her mum with simple tasks like removing kernels from cobs of corn.
Suman’s vision is so bad she has to hold the wall while walking to the bathroom, located behind their two-room mud hut. She rolls and squints her eyes to see things outside but can barely recognise anything.
When the other children return from school and play outside the hut, Suman sits on the veranda and tries to watch them laughing and having fun. She is devastated at the prospect of not going back to school and dreams of the day she can go again.
“I still remember the letters of the alphabet I learnt at school. I wish I could attend school again. I wish I received treatment for my blurry vision,” she says sadly.
“I want to study and do something worthwhile for my family.”
But Suman needs a Miracle for her dream to come true. And that’s what she’s praying for now. So is her mum. As are so many people living in poverty who are needlessly blind from cataracts.
For Suman, receiving the Miracle of sight-saving surgery to remove her cataracts would restore her sight forever.
It would mean she can go back to school and continue her studies. It would mean she can learn to read and write, like the other children in her village. And most of all, it would mean she can grow up to find a good job, and build an independent life of her own, without having to rely on other people for everything.
For just $33, you can give someone like Suman the Miracle of sight-saving surgery. Give a Miracle today or call 131 226.
Article supplied with thanks to CBM Australia.
Feature image: supplied / Suman