The secret of happiness in Tibet
Wednesday, July 29th, 2009It’s eye camp season again in Tibet. Each day hundreds of blind Tibetans are being screened by Seva for eye problems and scores of people blinded by cataracts are receiving sight-restoring surgery.
Tibetan patients queuing at a Seva cataract surgical eye camp
Seva Canada has been working for over 27 years to restore sight and prevent blindness in the developing world. We’ve been working in Tibet since 1995, where we are the dominant eye-care provider, doing two-thirds of all cataract surgeries.
Worldwide 45 million people are blind, but people don’t go blind by the millions. They go blind one personal tragedy at a time. Here is one story about someone who was blind and had her sight restored by Seva thanks to the generosity of Seva’s donors.
Patients at the Seva eye camp in Chamdo, Tibet
Last autumn in Chamdo, Tibet, a little 7-year-old boy led his blind mother by the hand to a Seva surgical eye camp. Dekyi is a 48-year-old single mother with 6 children depending on her.
Dekyi told Sonam from Seva’s Tibet office, “I never had a husband, but I have two children. Dorjee is the younger one and he brought me here. The older one, my daughter, is at home herding the animals. I became an orphan when I was just 5. My only surviving family member was my older brother and he died 3 years ago.”
She groaned, but continued with a trembling voice. “I lost my sight two years ago and since then I have been depending on Dorjee and my 12-year-old daughter for living. I hope that my sight will be restored from this operation. There is a huge amount of debt mounted from my brother’s illness and death that I need to paid off and I need to free Dorjee for schooling and to raise my brother’s four children. Their mother died five years ago and left all the kids for my brother to raise. His death left no choice for the kids than to depend on me.”
Dekyi's son Dorjee at the Seva eye camp in Tibet
She continued. “I am Dekyi. You know my that name means ‘happiness’ in Tibetan, but I’ve never been happy once in my life. My life has been all about death, loneliness, debts and now blindness. Often, I think I must have been a bad person in my previous life and that my bad karma is causing all this pain.”
Dekyi before her cataract surgery in Tibet
When called to the examination room, Dekyi quickly pulled herself together, stood up with the support of her stick and called for Dorjee who was outside playing with other children. All of the sudden, Dekyi looked pale and restless. She fumbled with her hair and pressed it down at the back and said, “This is it. The only chance I have got. What if my blindness is diagnosed as untreatable?”
Dorjee led her by the hand to the examination room. With Dorjee’s help, she placed herself on a chair in front of the slit lamp. A few minutes later, she was diagnosed with bilateral cataracts and scheduled for a surgery in the afternoon on the same day. Dorjee rushed to her and held her from her behind and buried his head into her coat and cried for a long time. He shed tears for the joy of a new hope and for all the pain borne all the years by her mother and himself. Dekyi thanked and prayed for the Buddha, drawing her palms together at her chest, and then spoke with a tearful face, “I am now feeling happy and happy for the first time in my life.” She wiped her tears with her right-hand sleeve and then followed Dorjee for lunch. Dekyi was operated in that afternoon.
Dekyi getting her eyes tested after cataract surgery
The next day, Dekyi had her vision tested and it was 6/9. She and Dorjee came to thank the Seva staff and to say goodbye. She looked much more tidy on that day than she did when she arrived at the camp. Her black hair was neat, she was smiling and she walked without the aid of her stick.
Dekyi feeling happy after cataract surgery by Seva
Carefully taking off her new sunglasses, she expressed her deep appreciation to Seva and asked that a particular message be conveyed to Seva’s donors. “Please tell all the people in your organization. They are the ones who have helped me end my bad karma and bring a glimpse of light to my life!” Tears of happiness were rolling down her cheeks as she said it.
Please consider supporting Seva Canada’s sight programs by becoming a monthly donor or giving the gift of sight. Call 604-713-6622 or visit our website at www.seva.ca.
Group photo of eye patients at Seva surgical camp Chamdo, Tibet. You can just see Dekyi in her red jacket at the top right-hand corner of the photo.
On Wednesday, we received the most delightful letter from 7-year-old Sam Ng and his mother, Franzi.
It’s a good enough model for Professor Yunus, the economist and Nobel Prize winner, who is using some of his funds to build a network of eye hospitals in Bangladesh. Teams of eye specialists from Bangladesh are now being trained at Aravind.
