The gift of sight

is something that is easy to take for advantage. Being able to wake up each day to see the colors around you, walk to the market to buy your vegetables, clean the house and also work are luxuries that many people lose after contracting cataracts and ptergyiums. Each day as their sight begins to fail slowly, they painfully also have to see their freedom disappear.

In Guatemala where the access to medical attention is limited, once a person begins to lose their sight there is little hope of ever gaining it back. The majority of the cases are elderly and after losing their sight have to give up their daily routines and work. It is a slow and sad process to see your freedom slowly drift away as they begin to fall, become restrained to stay inside their homes, be fed, and literally become useless.

The patients have gone years in darkness because of the lack of funds to even make an appointment to get checked let alone be operated. Dr. Dario Aldana is a dear friend of El Faro and receives the patients in his clinic in Puerto Barrios to be checked and put them on the list to be operated next time there is a team at El Faro.

The patients are not charged and have the opportunity to travel to El Faro, receive the operation from skilled and loving doctors, eat good food, sleep in a comfortable bed all free of charge. Their stay is a celebration and blessing, not a burden or worry about money.

It is an amazing experience to witness a person have their bandage lifted off their eye to see for the first time in years. Some laugh, some cry, but all our grateful for the second chance of a life not dependent on someone else’s guidance or help.

Cataract: The clouding of the eye’s lens. It can be caused by diabetes, high blood pressure, extreme exposure to sun and also debris found in the air.

Pterygium: a growth that develops and covers the white part of the eye. It can be caused by extreme exposure to the sun and exposure to irritants such as wind and dust.

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