India: Vaishnavi can smile again now she can see

It was Vaishnavi’s father San, who first noticed something was wrong with his five-year-old daughter’s right eye. She wasn’t playing as much as she used to and would often fall over when she was walking. Sometimes she would tell him that she couldn’t see.

After seeing something had developed in her eye he took her to the doctor in their village in the state of Bihar. The doctor explained that she had a cataract and that with time it would only get worse. Commonly, most cases of cataracts occur in older people, but the eye condition can appear at any age - even in childhood.

Unfortunately, the village doctor didn’t have the eye care skills to treat Vaishnavi’s condition and told San they needed to go to a bigger hospital.

The pair traveled 150 kilometers by bus to our brilliant partner hospital - Akhand Jyoti Eye Institute - where our Volunteer Faculty were training local eye doctors at our recently established Children’s Eye Center.

A fan of pretty dresses, Vaishnavi wore her favorite dress on the day she was screened by our dedicated Volunteer Faculty member Dr. Donny Suh and Dr. Faiz Ashraf Faizy from Akhand Jyoti.

Following the screening, the doctors told San that the cause of her cataract was either due to an injury or an infection, and that they would remove it during surgery the following day.

When surgery day came around, Vaishnavi wore her other favorite dress and smiled at everyone around her. When asked if she was always this happy her father explained she was even happier with her mother who had to stay at home with her baby sibling.

At home, the pre-schooler likes to dig in the ground and help with the gardening. Her carpenter father wants Vaishnavi to get a good education.

He said: “I wanted to get her treatment as soon as possible because she’s so young and I know that when she grows older it might get difficult. I want her to have the cataract removed as soon as possible, which is why I brought her here. I want her to grow up and study. “I don’t know where destiny will take her but I definitely want to make sure that she studies.”

With the guidance of Dr. Suh, Dr. Faizy successfully removed Vaishnavi’s cataract. Beforehand, San had been so worried about his young daughter having the surgery as he wasn’t sure what would happen next.

However, when the patch was removed, San put his hand over her good eye and asked if she could see through the one that had just been operated on – and she could!

While Vaishnavi is so fortunate to have her sight back, there are more children just like her struggling with their vision. In Bihar, India, over 700,000 people are blind with less than half unable to access sight-saving surgery and the region also has the lowest literacy rates for girls.

Thanks to your incredible support, the first ever pediatric eye care project in Bihar - unveiled last year - is dedicated to eradicating an epidemic of avoidable blindness among rural children in the Eastern India state.

A huge thank you for helping us get this projects off the ground so young girls and boys facing blindness won't be held back from unleashing their potential.