Previously they were blind but now they can see Previously, they were blind; but now they can see, thanks to the provision of free comprehensive eye care services by TY Danjuma Foundation (TYDF), through its implementing partner, Care Vision Support Initiative (CAVSI). Dantala DanAzumi, and Mallam Abdullahi are but two out of thousands of beneficiaries whose lives have been positively transformed following TYDF-funded interventions by CAVSI in Taraba state. Dantala DanAzumi, who is presently a carpenter by profession, and hails from Takum, was previously suffering from bilateral cataract which robbed him of his sight and rendered him dependant on others; but following the TYDF-funded CAVSI intervention during an Eye Camp conducted in Takum in 2012 a successful cataract surgery was performed on him, and Dantala has since regained his sight. He now happily manages his small-scale carpenter’s workshop in Takum, Taraba state. When TYDF’s monitoring and Evaluation team visited Dantala in his workshop recently, the happy man would not stop saying thank you to the TY Danjuma Foundation and its Founder/Chairman, General Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma. In his words: “Before now I could not see clearly, but with the coming of TY Danjuma Foundation, I can now see very clearly. For that, I am profoundly grateful to the man TY Danjuma”. The case of Mallam Abdullahi of Ussa is another sterling example of TYDF’s stream of changing lives for the better in Nigeria’s under-served communities. In his own account, Mallam Abdullahi reportedly used to be blind on one eye owing to cataract infection; yet tried to make a living as a vulcanizer. In a bid to find a cure and have his full sight restored, he travelled to several hospitals outside his home state of Taraba. After having spent much money, he still was unsuccessful and his condition continued to deteriorate. However, hope came his way when the TY Danjuma Foundation intervention came to his community. Following the announcement in 2010, that CAVSI, with funding from TYDF was organising an Eye Camp in Ussa, where comprehensive eye services would be provided for free, he decided to give it a shot and, to his greatest delight, he was cured. The cataract surgery and follow up attention he received enabled him regain his full sight. The day he regained his eye sight was a very memorable one indeed. He testifies it was a very emotional experience, having his sight restored and being able to once again do his work at full capacity. In his words: “Our father (referring to General TY Danjuma) has helped us in no small measure; the people who are benefitting from the Eye Camps are numerous. On the day that I regained my sight, I was so overwhelmed with joy that I shed tears”. Mallam Abdullahi went on to testify that he witnessed a miracle in one particular woman’s life; he said: “There was this woman who also came to the Eye Camp and was blind in both eyes; after the surgery, when she returned to the health center one week later to have the bandage removed, believe me, this woman walked home by herself, without a guide; to God who made me, I was even happier than that woman”. Mallam Abdullahi confessed that even one hundred thousand naira (N100, 000.00) could not have given her back her sight, going by the amount of money he had spent to cure one infected eye without success. Citing the example of a friend of his who had spent so much trying to regain his sight, Abdullahi had this to say: “One of my friends spent over two hundred thousand naira in different hospitals; but still he could not have his sight restored. He was suffering from that eye disease known as trachoma, a notorious condition that defies treatment. Having spent over two hundred thousand naira, he still could not see, until he died only a few days ago. That is why I am particularly grateful; I can see clearly now, I am fully engaged in my work, I can even read. I am so happy”. That CAVSI, and indeed other implementing partners of TY Danjuma Foundation are truly touching lives with TYDF-funded projects in communities is a fact that only the beneficiaries can best describe. Between 2009 and 2011, CAVSI’s comprehensive eyecare interventions reached over 40,000 people across the 16 LGAs of Taraba State. Of the 40,000 patients screened by CAVSI’s teams of ophthalmologists (which screening includedfundoscopy to diagnose both extra and intra ocular problems), a total of 14,401 of the patients received corrective eye glasses, irrespective of social standing and age; these included 2,867 secondary school students screened in 2011 alone, with a total of 161 special glasses dispensed to those with refractive errors. The result is that the students’ academic performance and retention in school improved tremendously. Furthermore, of the 40,000patients screened by CAVSI in that period, a total of 2,528 cataract patients were operated on at health facilities closest to their residences; needless to say, the socio-economic status of the cataract patients successfully operated upon has been uplifted beyond the beneficiaries’ wildest dreams. Also, up to 40 children with congenital or developmental cataract were successfully operated on between 2009 and 2011 by CAVSI with TYDF funding support.
Posted on: Sat, 15 Jun 2013 01:06:54 +0000
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