A Young Farmer's Journey to Regain His Sight

Mulatu Asefa with his vision restored!

WEEMA continues to celebrate our successful 2020 cataract campaign where we conducted surgeries for more than 1000+ patients. In the next few weeks, we’ll share a couple short stories to celebrate our patients’ journeys to regain sight: 

Mulatu Asefa is a young farmer in his early 30s. He lost sight in one of his eyes 6 years ago after suffering from an accident. He didn’t seek treatment for all these years because he thought his eye would heal on its own. He learned about how cataract is easily curable through a radio advertisement promoting our 2020 cataract campaign. He was ecstatic that this service was available and made the 2 hour trip to get this surgery. He is happy to be able to see with both eyes again, 6 years later.

The fear and lack of awareness around cataracts may often lead to patients with the easily curable case to not seek treatment. WEEMA is proud that this annual cataract campaign is not only organizing surgeries that can give back sight to the likes of Mulatu, but it is also raising awareness about cataracts and how it can easily be cured.

Photo credit: Martha Tadesse (@Marthinolly)

Asefa right before his cataract surgery

Asefa right after his cataract surgery