Desire, in Cameroon, explains how his sight was restored

I am from the central region of Cameroon, where I live with my four boys, wife and mother. When I was seven years old, I realised that something was wrong with me.

When I started going to school, I did not see the board well, and realised I could not see as well as my classmates. I could not do my homework well. My studies took a hit, and consequently, at the end of the year, it was impossible for me to graduate.

When I noticed that I was not performing well at school, I spoke to my father, who told me to wait, as he didn’t have enough money to take me to hospital. We went to hospital a few years later, and I was diagnosed with bilateral cataracts. We couldn’t afford the treatment, so I came home. He brought me back for a second time and they asked for a lot of money. My father did not have any. Unfortunately, he passed away some time later.

I continued to go to school despite my difficulties. I needed to obtain at least the first leaving certificate. Thank God, I got it.

I began working on the cocoa field, which my dad left to me as the head of the family. I am responsible for my father’s family and my own. Because of my blindness, I couldn’t meet all their needs. When we harvest, we sell the crop and send the children to school to get an education. The only option was to work for myself, at my own pace, with the support of my wife and mother.

I often worried that my children would have the same problem with their eyes. When I used to sit with  my kids, I would often place an object a couple of meters away and ask if they can see it. When they said yes, it calmed my heart, knowing that they did not have vision problems.

In July, I went to an eye hospital for a consultation. I was told I had cataracts and needed surgery. Like before, I did not have money for the surgery, so I returned home and resigned my fate to God, trusting him for a miracle. All I knew was that my future depended on this surgery. Every day before sleeping, and in the morning when I got up, I prayed for the future and offered God my whole day. The good God was my only hope. I firmly believed that he was not far from me. I prayed I would find someone who could pay for this surgery, so my health would improve and I could have a real source of income and provide for my family.

After living with blindness for nearly all my life, I met an outreach worker from the Magrabi International Council of Ophthalmology Eye Institute, a partner hospital of Christian Blind Mission (CBM) …

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This is an extract from an article that was published in the November 2018 edition of  Reform

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