Janaki Fernando, a grade eight student from a tsunami-battered
village in the Kalutara North district south of Colombo, was
distraught when she realized that her vision was blurred and that
she could not properly study for her year-end school exams. A visit
to a nearby eye clinic confirmed that she needed to wear
spectacles.

Her mother, a single parent, provides for both Janaki and her
8-year-old brother Gayan Pushpakumara from a meagre income earned
working as a domestic. “I knew that my mother could not
afford a pair of spectacles for me. She has more important
priorities like feeding and clothing us,” says Janaki.

Then her 72-year-old grandfather who lives with the family,
heard from fellow fishermen about an IOM eye camp to be held in the
village temple. “I was screened at the camp and then a few
weeks later asked to come for my spectacles,” explains
Janaki.

“I can now read the small print in the school text books
and that is such a blessing…..my school marks are also much
better than previously. My family and I are grateful to IOM for all
what they have done. More than anything they helped me to continue
my studies successfully….I can now work towards my ambition
of becoming a teacher,” she beams, preparing to do her
homework.

Janaki is one of the many beneficiaries of an IOM Eye Camp
programme funded by the Australian Red Cross. Under the programme,
over 100,000 people were screened for sight problems. More than
80,000 beneficiaries were provided with spectacles and around 6,000
were referred to the national eye hospital for further evaluation
and management, including cataract surgery and implants.

Clara Perera, a 76-year-old from Katukurunda in the Western
province of Sri Lanka, was worried when an ophthalmologist told her
that she had to undergo cataract surgery. “I had already
undergone a cataract operation in one eye ten years ago. But that
was when I was working, accompanying children to school in one of
the school buses in the neighbourhood.”

“Even then, it was expensive, especially the medicine. But
now I have to depend on my three married daughters and I see how
they struggle to cope, to rebuild what they lost during the
tsunami. How could I ask them to pay for the operation and replace
the spectacles I am already wearing?” she asks.

 

She then heard about IOM’s eye camps from a neighbour who has
just undergone a cataract surgery. “The IOM people were very
helpful. They helped me right along, from sight screening, to
making an appointment with the hospital for the surgery and making
sure that the implant was done right. They even provided my
medicine initially, which would have been too expensive for
me,” she adds.

Clara is now happy to be able to help her daughter and her
family, with whom she is living, with their daily chores. Her
daughter and son-in-law both work until late in the evening. Before
her operation she could not be of much help. “I hated to sit
by while everybody else worked hard. I did not want to be a burden
to them,” she says.

“According to my religion giving somebody back their
eyesight is a meritorious deed. I hope IOM can continue this kind
of work for many more years. Now, I feel as if I am doing something
worthwhile… as if I am contributing in my own little
way,” she says.

To ensure the sustainability of the programme, IOM trained over
600 local health workers including primary eye care workers,
ophthalmologic nurses and operating theatre personnel in the early
detection and handling of eye ailments, maintaining and sterilizing
surgical equipment and assisting in cataract surgery.

Since January 2006 IOM has also donated eye equipment valued at
US$125,500 to the eye care units of hospitals in six
tsunami-affected districts in Southern and Eastern Sri Lanka,
including Kalutara, Galle, Matara, Hambantota, Ampara and
Batticaloa.