A drive to perform 100 000 cataract operations worldwide over the next 100 days was launched by an international NGO, the Christian Blind Mission (CBM), in Cape Town on Tuesday.
According to CBM president Prof Allen Foster about 17-million people worldwide are totally blind because of cataracts — a condition reversible in a relatively simple 10- to 15-minute operation.
”This is one of the great injustices in the world today,” he said.
He said that over the past 30 years CBM had provided funding for over six million cataract operations, and last year was responsible for 640 000.
The ”100 000 miracles” campaign, launched on Tuesday, will mean that this number of extra operations will be carried out this year.
South Africa had been chosen as the venue for the launch because of the symbolism of the fact that there are about 100 000 people in the country who are blinded by cataracts.
About 2 000 of the ”miracles” operations will be carried out in South Africa.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who was guest speaker at the launch, held at Groote Schuur Hospital where many of the operations are performed, spoke of witnessing the joy of people being unbandaged and rediscovering the gift of sight after their operations.
”Don’t you want to be part of making such a miracle happen?” he asked.
”Can you imagine what it must be like when a child who has been blind from birth, who has one of these operations, and they remove the bandages and the child sees their mother and their father for the first time?
”You and I take so many things for granted.”
He and Foster together broke a ”fulani stick”, used by children to lead blind adults around in East Africa, to symbolise breaking the cycle of blindness.
A cataract is a clouding of the lens of the eye, usually as a result of ageing, though it can also occur through disease or injury.
The operation usually involves replacing the lens with a plastic substitute.
According to Foster, CBM not only funds operations directly, but also invests in infrastructure and training, to ensure that cataract surgery is available on a long-term, sustainable basis. — Sapa