Simple Surgery to restore Sight to Ethiopians

Tesfanesh is a 13 year old girl, she is the eldest of four girls. She lives with her parents and three younger sisters in Dana Bulto in southern Ethiopia. As the eldest, she is relied upon to help to look after the younger girls. She is also responsible for many of the household chores, herding cattle and collecting water and firewood.

On top of all this, Tesfanesh attends school, which is what she loves the most. She loves reading and writing. Her teachers encourage Tesfanesh as she has huge potential. They say she is one of the brightest students in the entire school.

Four years ago Tesfanesh was forced to leave schoool and she could no longer read her beloved books. 

Her eyes started tearing, it was like she constantly had something in her eye. Over time this sensation worsened and her eye lashes started to turn inward, scratching on her eyeball. This is known as trichiasis, the blinding form of trachoma. Years of repeated infection without treatment leads to a life of excruciating pain and ultimately blindness. 

It was impossible to attend school or play with friends or carry out simple household chores. Trachoma is all-consuming. Tesfanesh stayed at home most days because of a fear of sunlight.

The entire family were so worried about Tesfanesh’s eyes: the thought of Tesfanesh losing her sight in such a young age was unbearable. They tried every traditional treatment available, but nothing worked. 

One day, Tesfanesh’s parents heard an announcement of an Orbis supported free eye care service. Eye health professionals were coming to one of the health centres in their community. The next day, Tesfanesh’s walked the 5km with her parents to the local health centre.

The Eye Health Worker confirmed that Tesfanesh had been suffering from Trichiasis. Straight away, they conducted surgery on both eyes. A few days later she returned and had the stitches removed. 

Following the simple surgery Tesfanesh said “I didn’t see anything except the road on my way to the health centre, but now I see everything and most importantly I am not feeling any pain…I can’t wait to start school again”

Thank you for supporting our project to conduct sight saving surgeries - your support is making a real difference! 

It is unusual to see the blinding form of trahoma in children younger than 15. In areas where trachoma is hyper endemic and recurrence of the infection is very high, young children with blinding trachoma is all too common. Dita woreda, in southern Ethiopia, is one such area. In the worst affected areas up to 70% of children have trachoma, a figure I struggle to imagine.

Alemnesh is an 11 year old girl who lives in Lisha village of the Dita region, with her family of seven. In the past year, Alemnesh has been suffering from tearing, aversion to light, and pain which forced her to lose focus on her education.

No one in the family knew that Alemnesh was suffering from trachoma. Without any knowledge or understanding Alemnesh's condition went untreated and ultimately her sight deteriorated further as more of her eye lashes turned inwards, scratching on her cornea and causing excruciating pain.

One day, Alemnesh went to visit her grandmother. While she was there, Zenebech, the local health extension worker dropped in for a routine visit. She noticed straight away that Alemnesh had a problem with her eyes. 

Zenebech, who has been trained in primary eye care evaluations by Orbis, examined Alemnesh and noticed straight away that she had blinding trachoma. Zenebech advised that the disease could be treated quickly and easily. Zenebech contacted the local eye care worker, from the local health centre and made an appointment for an operation. 

Shortly after, Alemnesh and her grandmother went to the health centre to receive treatment. The eye care worker, Tsehay, examined Alemnesh and conducted lid surgery - free of charge - thanks to Orbis!

A week later and Alemnesh returned to the health centre for a post op checkup. This was a very special day for Alemnesh - she felt no pain and her vision was clear.

She said “I never thought that lid surgery would be a simple procedure to go through when I was told what the treatment for my eye condition was…My wish now is to attend school with comfort and to work hard. Opportunity always helps people like me”

Millions of people are still suffering needlessly in Ethiopia, where treatment is scarcely available, and sufferers are forced to take desperate measures, often pulling out their eyelashes to stop them scratching their eyes.

Orbis is working to change this and thanks to your support we are completely transforming these regions of Ethiopia