Lily Amis: Lily4Humanity CBM Success stories Afiz eye surgery!

In my upcoming posts, I'm sharing true success stories to show you CBM's incredible work and to inspire you to support this wonderful charity! I like to thank CBM SWISS for trusting me and sharing these beautiful life stories.

Eye sight enables Afiz to walk, run, play, and smile.

The almost deserted but clean compound greets whoever comes into Aisha’s home. Despite the somewhat needy situation at Aisha’s home, there is so much joy in the house, and mostly in her heart, as shown by the smile on her face. The persistent smile on her face as she looks at Afiz running around the living room, while disorganizing everything that he can see, is something to note with importance. She does not restrain him from touching even what might get dirty by his soiled little hands. Afiz runs around and returns to his mother to breast feed for a minute and then runs away again. Aisha is happy. One can see that.

Aisha can now afford a genuine smile when it comes to the sight of her young son Afiz. The pain of having to answer uncountable questions weighed in heavy on her, yet she did not have the right answers to the questions from neighbours and strangers. Nobody understood her pain. Others asked her because of curiosity and not because they wanted to offer help.

Once blind, but now can see

“You know, he is excited about being able to see. He had failed to crawl and walk because he could not see anything.” Aisha, Afiz’s mother begins. “Even at 7 months, he could not sit. His neck could also not support the head to be upright. His head just hung on his neck loosely. He could not even laugh or smile but now he laughs, smiles, runs and can see where he is going”, Aisha says with a smile.

“I was tired of the question, ‘omwana yabaaki?’” (Loosely translated as: ‘What happened to the child?’” Mama Afiz continues.

“Before his surgery, it grieved me to know that my son might never see. I did not have the money and his father had also failed to raise the money”, she says.

After trying to save for the surgery bill, the money was not even close to a quarter of what was needed and more family expenses kept on accumulating. Mama Afiz’s hope became dim.

“Afiz could not see me or his siblings. His brothers would give him things to play with but he could not touch them because his world was dark. He did not know what he was being given. He could not see it. He also had no appetite.”” Aisha peaks

Life after surgery and restored sight

“Now, he can receive what he is given, he can tell what he likes and what he does not like. He likes colourful things. After his surgery, I noticed that he would pull things all the time. I was mostly happy that he could see me and finally know what I look like.” Aisha peaks

Aisha has many dreams for little Afiz. She says she prays for him every day that his future may turn out bright. She hopes that now that he can see, Afiz can go to school when he is of the right age.

“I would like him to become a doctor and even work at Mengo Eye Hospital to treat eyes of people. Thank you for thinking about us from the start. You gave my son free surgery. Now you have come to see how he is doing. I do not have anything to give you, but I pray that you may live long”, Aisha expresses her gratitude.