One of the most detrimental barriers to people receiving critical eye care is fear of the unknown. People living in rural areas, particularly in low-income countries, often do not know how or where to find treatment when their vision starts to fail, and they don’t know what the outcome will be for them when they do receive access to resources.
This is where outreach efforts come into play. When you inform people about safe eye care, seeking treatment becomes simpler than imagined and less scary!
Meet Happiness Tuvana, Program Manager at Kilimanjaro Centre for Community Ophthalmology (KCCO), Seva’s partner in Tanzania. Happiness’s kind, soft-spoken demeanor is perfect for reassuring fearful patients.
“‘What will they do to my eyes? Will I be totally blind?'” she says, channeling patients’ fears. “They say, ‘Cataract surgery, at my age? No, let me die the way I am.'”
Having an empathetic person like Happiness perform outreach is essential to the work you support through Seva. She counsels patients and family members about the benefits of eye care and talks them through their fears. They don’t have to live in darkness anymore. With your generous support, our partners can make even more people feel safe in seeking treatment. With $50 you can support a cataract surgery and restore someone’s sight.
