Eye care for all: How Project Anya is Spreading the Word
I met Hajara back in June when I first started working at the Tulsi Chanrai Foundation Eye Hospital. I was interested in learning about the people who came into the hospital seeking eye care, especially those who have little to no resources to pay for it.
Hajara is a Fulani woman, meaning her job entails selling cow milk. A couple of years ago Hajara had struggled with a cataract in her left eye, so her children had to take over the family business while she was incapacitated. She felt helpless.
However, the hospital was able to successfully operate for free.
Over time, her right eye also developed a cataract, and before coming to the hospital again, she could only see exaggerated hand movements which prevented her from walking. The hospital was able to give her the required treatment and, again, successfully operated on her eye. Everything at no cost for Hajara.
Like Hajara there are many men and women who cannot afford to pay for their own surgery and are forced to stop their daily activities altogether. Activities that entail manual labor, selling their produce, and making a profit. I still recall the joy in Hajara’s immediate reaction after her vision was restored to 6/9: “I am so happy, I can now do anything I want to do!’’
A treatable issue
Hearing Hajara’s story pulled at my heartstrings. “According to the National Blindness and Visual Impairment Survey conducted in 2007, the prevalence of blindness in people of age ≥50 years was estimated to be 5.5 % and in ≥60 years as high as 9.3% in Nigeria.”[1] Meaning thousands of people struggle with an issue that already has existing and successful treatment, but cannot afford it.
This is what makes organisations like the Tulsi Chanrai Foundation Eye Hospital worthwhile. Located in Abuja, Nigeria, the hospital has been able to help over 143,260 people in its outpatient department since January 2019. They have been able to fund 8895 free surgeries over the last three years through 6,278 paid surgeries.
Uhmar, a man who had been dealing with an age-related cataract in his left eye for 2 years, told me what it was like to have impaired vision. “Anything you want to do in life, with the loss of vision, there is no life, vision is life.” He kept repeating this last phrase.
A few hours after the surgery Uhmar was able to see and has now gone back to work as a farmer to support his family. He prayed for the success of the hospital: “God bless you, and may God bless the hospital.”
It makes me so happy to be part of this legacy, especially as my grandfather founded this hospital in 2019. His dream was to provide the Abuja community with world-class health care for free.
Working there, sharing these stories with him, and witnessing his tireless dedication to helping others inspired me to create my own project and contribute my own time and resources.
About Project Anya
I founded Project Anya in early 2021 with the mission of spreading awareness on the issue of eye care through social media presence and news outlets. I wanted others to learn about the hospital, the people, and the medical team working hard to help those in need. Anya, the project name, means “eyes” in Yoruba and “look” in Hausa, which are two of the tribal languages in Nigeria.
A quote that has stuck with me comes from one of the patients, John, when talking about losing his vision: “It has also affected relationships … I have lost several friends because of this, because I cannot see them smiling and they think I am being rude. They don’t understand, they think I am being arrogant.” It highlights the importance of the project for me all over again and helps me understand how, though eyesight is essential to people who depend on physical labor as a main source of income, it also affects how we relate to others.
Project Anya hopes to bring awareness and spread the word so people who live with curable blindness can access these services for free!
If you’d like to follow Project Anya on Instagram look for us with the handle: @project_anya_org. And who knows, maybe this will inspire others to create other initiatives too.
