A few years ago my friend Markt Takefman was a VSO volunteer in a city in China. While there he helped a young girl who was cross-eyed to obtain an operation to fix her vision. For some reason this story has stayed with me.
We have no real eye care facilities in Karjanha and unfortunately I haven't found that parents are very pro-active either about their own or their children's health. My little friend Anjelee who comes from a family of eight brothers and sisters has been squinting since I came to Karjanha. At eight years old I knew that she needed glasses. The question was, how bad was her vision?
Some time ago I had said to Anjelee's father that I thought she needed glasses and that I would take her to Sagarmatha choudhary Eye Hospital (SCEH) in Lahan, Siraha about 37 km from Karjanha. Finally this past Wednesday our driver needed to go to Lahan and I quickly found Anjelee, her sister Neeshu, who had recently broken her glasses and their sister Mamta, who at nine is very bilingual. We all packed into the truck driven by one of our ace drivers Umesh and sped off towards Lahan.
I had previously met with the SCEH Administrator but he was in Pokhara. He told me to approach another administrator at SCEH and I told him that the family was poor and they quickly registered us and we went for eye tests. It was found that Anjelee's eyes were poor and she most likely should have been wearing glasses for some time. Neeshu had not received an eye exam for 1.5 years and her vision had changed. After receiving eye exams at no charge we were told to come back on Friday to pick up the children's glasses.
We again went to see the other administrator and he quickly sent us to verify Wednesday's results and then to pick up glasses, again at no charge. The girls were able to watch their lenses being ground and then put on their new glasses.
The joy and happiness that I felt at the kindness of the staff at SCEH was nowhere in comparison to the joy which the children felt, now being able to see. Anjelee's eyes are poor such that we need to go back in three months to continue to correct her eyesight with a new prescription. Neeshu will go back in six months for regular check-ups.
We need to take care of our children, give them the best we can afford and if we need charity we need to accept this. Most of all we need to be aware of and sensitive to our children's needs even if they are not communicative. We must all practice small acts of kindness, love our children unconditionally which in light of recent world events and cold blooded attacks on innocents is vital for ensuring that our children can become good human beings. This ultimately is what will change the world.
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