Skip to main content
  • E-mail
  • Save
  • Print

Jennifer's blog: The miracle of sight

  • Story Highlights
  • Jennifer Staple will be traveling to Ghana and India with Unite For Sight
  • The organization aims to provide essential eye treatment around the world
  • In Tamale, Ghana there is only one ophthalmologist for 2 million people
  • Next Article in World »
By Jennifer Staple for CNN
Decrease font Decrease font
Enlarge font Enlarge font

(CNN) -- Jennifer Staple runs the Unite For Sight program which started in the U.S., but has branched out into working overseas.

art.eye.test.jpg

Unite For Sight in Ghana: "The team in Tamale screens hundreds of patients in villages every day."

Regarding sight as a fundamental human right that most people take for granted, the program aims to tackle a range of visual impairments that affect people across the world.

Jennifer will be traveling to Ghana and then India, taking volunteers to continue the work of Unite For Sight. Keep up with her experiences in her blogs and video diaries.

September 10, 2007
I vividly remember one of the first vision screenings seven years ago in a New Haven, Connecticut library.

I met four-year-old Kim, who had a large difference in vision between her right and left eyes. I told Kim's mother that she should take her daughter to an eye doctor, which she did.

Later, she told me that Unite For Sight's referral enabled her daughter to receive the diagnosis and treatment that corrected the problem, which is called ambylopia and must be corrected by the age of five in order to prevent permanent blindness. Kim was referred to an eye doctor just in time.

Eye-saving experiences like this occur every day, and the hundreds of patients we help, motivate me to work harder and harder to eliminate blindness in the world.

Just yesterday, I received a report from a volunteer with our program in Tamale, Ghana, located in the Northern Region, a 10-hour drive from the capital city.

A Ghanaian, Dr. Wanye is the only ophthalmologist for 2 million people in the region. In contrast, there is one eye doctor for every 5,000 people in the U.S. Dr. Wanye works day and night, often without electricity, with remarkable dedication and passion for helping his community. To me, what Dr. Wanye does is miraculous!

The team in Tamale screens hundreds of patients in villages every day, and Dr. Wanye provides their sight-restoring surgery. The patients walk into the eye clinic completely blind; many are not even able to see light. When they walk out of the clinic, the patients can see again! They return to their villages, contribute to their communities and are able to help their families.

So far, we have provided 10,000 of these sight-restoring surgeries. That's 10,000 lives that have been positively changed, and there is no better feeling than to know that Unite For Sight is making such an important difference every hour of the day.

I look forward to having you join me this year on my journey to continue expanding Unite For Sight's programs so that we can help hundreds of thousands more people this year. E-mail to a friend E-mail to a friend

  • E-mail
  • Save
  • Print