Current Appeal – Cataracts

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Please help transform the lives of adults and children with disabilities, like 13-year-old Patrick, living in remote communities in Papua New Guinea…

Your gift will be multiplied x5 by our Government’s Aotearoa New Zealand International Development Cooperation Programme!

“Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes.”  – Isaiah 54:2

One year ago, wonderful supporters like you set out to enlarge the tent of cbm’s impact across Papua New Guinea (PNG). Patrick’s amazing transformation is testimony to this kindness.

When Patrick was a baby, his mother Michelle saw the dim disks of cataracts in the eyes of her firstborn. She knew what they meant. A childhood of increasing blindness and a lifetime of poverty, even more challenging than her own.

Back then, cbm’s tent in PNG was not wide enough to reach their community – but last year, with help like yours, cbm was able to expand its tent pegs to find and embrace them.

Today, please will you help expand cbm’s tent even further. Once again, our Government’s Aotearoa New Zealand International Development Cooperation Programme will assist, by multiplying your gift x5 to help transform even more lives like Patrick’s!

All Patrick’s Mum and Dad could do was hope that his sight would never grow dim. The time came, though, when they could no longer deny it: “He kept moving the paper very close to his eyes,” said Michelle. “Patrick could not see clearly!”

In the wilderness of PNG’s Highlands, sight loss can be life-threatening for a child – surrounded by sharp branches, thorns, deadly creatures and dangerous slopes.

Trying to keep him at home didn’t work. He loved helping with chores, like chopping firewood for the family. Mum explained “Patrick is a good boy. We tell him not to do this work, but he doesn’t like to sit around and do nothing.”

Patrick agreed. “I work! This problem with my sight won’t stop me!”

Sadly, his cataract glare became unbearable. “When there is sunlight, I can’t see,” he admitted.

At school, Patrick noticed things were getting worse. “I find it hard to see my teacher’s writing.” His mother noticed too, “Even from the front of the class. It is a struggle.”

Education is vital in breaking the cycle of poverty and disability. If Patrick was to miss out on his schooling, his life would be overwhelmed by deepening poverty.

He would miss out on the future dream he cherished. “I want to become a Pastor. I love the work they do.” How could a Pastor possibly minister across the Highlands’ muddied and rutted tracks, when they could not see?

By restoring children’s sight, you restore their lost dreams and futures. Please send your sight-saving gift today, to be multiplied x5 for children like Patrick.

To show you the impact of sending your gift today, just look at what has happened with the support of caring people like you…

Thousands of adults and children had their eyesight checked, leading to many receiving the care they urgently needed. For some, that meant life-changing eye surgery. For others, it was a simple pair of glasses that opened up their world. Imagine the joy of seeing clearly again. Like the blackboard at school, the words of Scripture, or a loved one’s face.

Thanks to kind people like you, vital ear care reached thousands more. Some even received medical treatments that restored their hearing, their life transformed in an instant.

This generosity also helped children and adults with disabilities access education, perhaps for the very first time.

It also made it possible to provide assistive devices that brought dignity and independence. Like crutches, wheelchairs, and Braille machines. Devices that offer hope, mobility, and a future.

All of this, every changed life, was made possible because of the vital gifts sent by people like you, who want to be part of something transformational. 

Kindness like yours has enlarged the area where cbm can work. As a result, a cbm-funded field worker was able to reach Patrick’s home, bringing the good news of freedom from cataract blindness.

Examining Patrick and seeing the level of blindness he was experiencing, the cbm-funded field worker recommended that he receive urgent medical treatment.

The next day, thankfully, Michelle and Patrick were able to make plans for their journey to the Goroka Eye Hospital, where, within hours of arriving, Patrick would be scheduled for sight-saving cataract surgery!

What an amazing turnaround after 13 years without hope.

As they prepared to leave for the hospital, Patrick peered through the glare and haze, looking for a mountain he loved to see when his cataracts weren’t so bad. “I would love to have the eye operation so that I can see things. I will be so happy to see clearly again.”

On the day of surgery, Michelle was a little fearful and sad as she watched Patrick being guided into the operating theatre. “I was tearing up. It is Patrick’s first time having an operation.”

Thanks to support like yours, Michelle didn’t need to be concerned. Soon the blinding cataracts in Patrick’s eyes were skilfully replaced with beautifully clear new lenses.

He came out of his surgery with eye padding for a night of recovery, and the next day Patrick received the wonderful gift of bright new sight. “I’m happy now!! I can see clearly!!”

Naturally, having been blind so long, Patrick needed glasses too – and they were right there, in the perfect prescription. His mother could not believe it all: “We even got him specs!! He is wearing specs!” She was rapt with delight.

When they returned home, there was the mountain peak he remembered. “The mountain I used to see far away is now very clear! It is very big and bright! I can see the mountain!”

Kindness from people like you has helped Patrick overcome the mountain of his disability. Now he can see a far better future ahead: including his dreams. He can catch up at school. He can become a Pastor. He can share the Gospel.

Today, please, prayerfully consider sending a sight-saving gift, multiplied x5 by our Government. Your gift will have a tremendous impact, giving adults and children their independence, freedom from abuse, and a chance to shape their own future.

Your gift will help provide glasses for adults and children who have difficulty seeing, enabling children to obtain an education to help break the cycle of poverty and disability.

It will help provide sight-saving cataract surgeries, enabling adults and children with avoidable blindness to see!

And it will help support cbm-funded field workers in remote areas to find adults and children with disabilities, and refer them for specialist help.

Your gift, along with a match from our Government’s Aotearoa New Zealand International Development Cooperation Programme, will continue to help cbm’s partners improve local health facilities, such as hospitals and clinics that need essential infrastructure, equipment and staff trained in specific skilled disability prevention services. Due to limited funding and not enough trained staff, many of these local health facilities do not have sufficient specialised equipment for screening and assessment of disability services.

There is a great need to provide more eye and ear screening equipment, glasses and primary eye and ear care training for health personnel, to serve in remote locations. Please can you help?

Think of the joy your gift will create – especially when multiplied x5. You can hear such joy as Michelle says this of Patrick,

“As his mother, I am so happy, because his future is very important. I thank God and thank you. He can see everything clearly! When he goes to school, it won’t be a hardship for him any more. Thank you – and all glory goes back to God!!”

Amen! Thank you for being the kind of person a family like Patrick’s can rely on for help and support, when they have no other hope of overcoming the mountains of poverty and disability in their child’s life. You are truly wonderful and we are so grateful for your generosity towards our near neighbours in PNG.

Born with cataracts forming in his eyes, for 13 years there was no hope of any cure or treatment. Patrick’s dream of becoming a young Pastor for Jesus seemed lost due to his avoidable blindness. Yet when kind people like you helped cbm enlarge the place of its tent in PNG, Patrick was found and was able to receive the miracle of sight-saving cataract surgery.

Please will you prayerfully consider sending a gift today to continue transforming the lives of adults and children with disabilities living in remote communities in PNG. It will have an enormous impact, giving adults and children independence, freedom from abuse, and a chance to shape their own future.

Thank you for your kind and caring heart.