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How restored sight sounds in Ethiopia

click photo to listen  
 
The joy that you just saw and heard is made possible by your support.
 
This time it comes from Ethiopia, where SightLife Associate Medical Director Dr. Matt Oliva traveled recently with sight-restoring transplant tissue from SightLife.
 
 Explains Dr. Matt:
 
"When people in Ethiopia are happy and wish to say thank you, they 'ululate' as a group to show respect and express thanks. Having 150 postop cataract and cornea patients saying thank you is a humbling experience."
 
That's SightLife Operations Chief Bernie Iliakis leaning in at an eye bank inspection seminar in India.

SightLife works with five partner eye banks in India to increase volumes of recovered cornea tissue available for transplant.
This past year, each of our partners dramatically increased the volume of corneas recovered for transplants.  One partner placed 214% more corneas than the year before. The smallest increase was 23%.

Success stories like these hold the key to eliminating curable cornea blindness worldwide.
 
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THANK YOU for restoring my sight

 
After a 10-year wait, Brian Wambau of Kenya can see again thanks to your support.  

Meet Brian Wambua.
 
Brian is 17 years old and lives in Kenya. He waited almost 10 years before receiving the cornea transplant that restored his vision this June. 
 
This incredibly happy moment in Brian's young life was made possible by your support for SightLife. 
 
The gratis transplant tissue that restored sight to Brian came from SightLife. It was hand-carried to Kenya by Dr. Huck Holz, an ophthalmologist from Santa Clara, California. 
 
In all, Dr. Holz had six precious corneas to share on his visit to Kenya, so five others got their sight back on the same day as Brian. Dr. Pat Otieno of Kenyatta University helped to organize this project and collaborated on the surgeries. 
 
She is providing follow-up care and wants you to know how grateful Brian and the others are for the transformation in their lives. She remains thrilled with their progress as they embrace new possibilities each day that come with restored sight. 
 
"From myself, and on behalf of all these patients, thank you all very much," she wrote in a recent e-mail. 
 
Overseas training missions that restore sight to grateful recipients like Brian are one way SightLife uses your support. These same missions teach technical skills that surgeons in developing countries like Dr. Otieno need to restore sight to millions more of their countrymen suffering today from curable cornea blindness. 
 
This is SightLife's teach-the-hungry- to-fish approach to ending curable cornea blindness for 10 million men, women, and children. We are working now to establish eye banks in the developing countries where 90% of these people live.  
 
Your support makes the world better in two important ways:
  1. It funds establishment of eye banks in developing countries. These eye banks hold the key to eliminating a severe worldwide shortage of cornea tissue available for transplant. 
     
  2. It gives restored sight now to individuals like Brian, who are suffering in curable cornea blindness.
We add our thanks to those of Brian and Dr. Otieno for your help in achieving this work.  
 
With your support, we pass the gift of sight forward so the next person can see.