Project Restores Sight for Thousands of Armenians
Lusik Yeritsyan and her family live on the outskirts of Artsvaberd, a small village in Armenia’s Tavush marz. The house has one living room, one bedroom, a kitchen, and a corridor where Lusik’s bed is located. Like other unemployed villagers, her family of eight – her husband Armen, son and daughter-in-law, Ashot and Maro, and five grandchildren, ages five to sixteen – live off their land, a few sheep and hens, and Lusik and Armen’s pensions.
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After several years of blindness, Lusik now enjoys every single “day of light” and seeing her grandchildren grow
Photo Credit: AECP |
Apart from the family’s hardships, Yeritsyan had another challenge to cope with – she was going blind in both eyes from cataracts. “It was two years and a month since I had last seen with my eyes. I had to reduce my movements and spend most of my time indoors because I couldn’t see,” she recalls. She even kept a calendar where she noted every day of her increasing blindness.
Yeritsyan was first examined by a doctor when the Mobile Eye Hospital (MEH) from the joint USAID/Armenia Eyecare Project Global Development Alliance initiative visited her village for eye screenings and treatment. Launched in 2004, the USAID Global Development Alliance project “Bringing Sight to Armenian Eyes: A Primary and Opthalmological Healthcare Alliance” works to prevent avoidable blindness in Armenia and increase access to quality eye care services throughout the country.
Once Yeritsyan’s cataracts were diagnosed, she was scheduled for surgery on both eyes. She was skeptical, “The doctors said they could restore my sight with the surgery, but I didn’t believe I could ever see again.”
When Dr. Asatour Hovsepian removed the bandages following her second surgery in the Mobile Eye Hospital, Yeritsyan was overjoyed. “I had these ‘clouds’ in my eyes, then blindness took over. Now the clouds are gone and I see light, I see people. I am telling you—I am reborn!,” she exclaimed, hardly recognizing her grandchildren, who had grown since she last was able to see them.
Yeritsyan now counts “the days of light” on her calendar and thanks the doctors for all the happiness they brought into her life. “I never thought she would be able to see again. It’s incredible,” her husband says, “we are so fortunate there are such compassionate doctors and benevolent organizations in the world!”
“There are few things that can change an individual’s life as radically as restoring their sight,” attested Yeritsyan. She is one of the 4,790 patients that received surgical or laser treatment by MEH specialists over the past three years and have been able to start their life anew.
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