Shoemaker Juma Twaha at home in Tanzania

When ORBIS doctors first met JumaTwaha, a 25-year-old shoemaker in the rural Tanzanian town of Temeke, he was nearly blind in both eyes and was finding it difficult to earn a living or avoid the torment of local bullies. All that changed when Juma was selected as a teaching case during an ORBIS Flying Eye Hospital program in Dar es Salaam. 

The opaque cataracts covering Juma’s eyes were successfully removed through small incision cataract surgery, a new technique employed by ophthalmologists at Muhimbili Hospital during the three-week training program.

Two weeks after the surgery, during a follow-up visit, Juma expressed a joyful optimism towards the years ahead.

"I want to marry,” Juma said. “Having a family is very important to me. Now I can see my face, and I know I look real nice. I will get a wife, no problem!"

Blind for three years, poverty kept him from seeking help

Juma describes his long journey to regain his sight

Juma had lost his eyesight three years earlier but had held out hope that with glasses he could see again. But as his eyesight deteriorated, so did his business. He had been on his own, making shoes, since he was just a child — his parents having died many years earlier. Without his eyesight, he could barely make enough money for food. When a family friend lent him the money to see a local eye doctor, he thought his troubles were over. He would get his eyeglasses and rebuild his shoe repair business. He would marry and have children.

But that was not the case. Eyeglasses could not restore Juma’s eyesight. Juma had to make his way to Dar es Salaam to see a specialist. It was there, at Muhimbili Hospital, that he learned he had cataracts.

With no money for surgery, Juma braced himself for a life of poverty and dependency. But one thing was in his favor — he had arrived at the hospital at the same time that an ORBIS training program was being planned, and he was told to return on patient screening day. He did, and he was accepted for surgery.

Surgery successful

Juma Twaha gives the thumbs up sign signaling his cataract surgery was successful

Juma’s surgery was performed the next day, and his vision came back immediately! A jubilant Juma rushed around shaking hands and thanking everyone involved.

“Before, I was totally blind, and it was impossible to see anything,” he said. “But now I can see. I can walk by myself, I can get the bus and go wherever I need to. I don’t need to rely on anyone anymore. When I go home tomorrow, I can start making shoes, and people will want to buy them.”

When Juma returned for his follow-up visit two weeks later, he told doctors and nurses how good it was to see his house. “I haven’t stopped admiring it,” he said. “I hadn’t seen it for such a long time, and it felt good. My mother and father lived there when they were alive. It made me remember good things.”

Three years later, Juma preparing for marriage

Juma in front of his shoe repair business

Three years after his cataract surgery, Juma has a steady girlfriend and is making enough money to get married and start a family.  

“I can see much better now,” Juma says. “I can use even my smallest tools when repairing shoes. I have been able to make other kinds of stitches and polish shoes much better. I have a new ambition — to make shoes instead of just fixing old ones. I work until 6 p.m. every day of the week. Being able to see again has changed my life.”

Without the surgery, Juma says, his life would have been empty. “I would have depended on my neighbors and always been asking for help,” he said. “Now I have two people depending on me.  Since the operation I have a girlfriend, who I am looking after, and a brother who is ill. I could not have taken care of them before. Please thank everyone at ORBIS for my operation. I am happy now. I can see!”

You can help

Juma’s life was transformed through the financial contributions of people like you. With your help, others like Juma can have their sight restored and their lives rebuilt. Please give generously so that others may see.