Elder Enebedum Ekedife is a native of Nobi, Anambra State, some three hundred kilometres  from Calabar, Cross River State capital. For three years, he was afflicted with some problem in both eyes. In mid- 2012, he went completely blind. If he needed to eat, someone had to be on hand to help him keep the food close to avoid spilling.

Even as frustrating as that could be, someone had to lead him by hand and remain close each time the 63 year-old visited the toilet so he would not soil himself.  Even, doing simple chores like putting on his clothes, his daughter, Jane, had to attend to him, causing the  twenty one -year -old to abandon her studies at the Institute of Management and Technology, IMT, Enugu. But all that changed when he visited the Mission for Vision Centre, Calabar, where he was operated on both eyes and he regained his sight.

“Many people who came to see me told me to come to Calabar and my daughter led me here. Last week, I was operated on. Now I can see with both eyes,” he said. Jane, now ready to return to school, is ecstatic about her father regaining his sight and is thanking not only God but also Cross River State government and Tulsi Chanrai Foundation, the operators of the free eye surgery programme through which her father regained his lost sight.

As it is with Ekedife, so also it is for Madam Rose Ubani, a 58- year-old retired school teacher from Abia State, who was flanked on both sides by her two children, Barbara and Chinedu. While narrating her experience, tears of joy flowed down her cheeks as she could not believe she would regain her sight  after two years of living in darkness. The fair woman said her both eyes were covered by cataract for over two years and she thought that her enemies had prevailed over her and rendered her useless.

“I went to a traditional doctor who poured some painful substances into my eyes for over three months and nothing improved, but, rather, my children saw a red patch develop in my left eye. It was while my problem was getting worse and I had to return home that one day my son’s friend, who came to visit, asked why we had not been to Calabar. That was how we came to know that I could be treated in Calabar free and today I can see clearly”.

The testaments of Ekedife and Ubani resonate with those of several thousands of others: young, old, men, women, the rich and the poor who have regained their sight through the free eye surgery at the General Hospital Calabar, Mission for Vision partnership between the Cross River State Government and the Tulsi Charai Foundation which provides free eye surgery  Daily the precincts of the General Hospital Calabar, located along the Mary Slessor Avenue, witnesses a deluge of eye patients from places as far as Anambra, Enugu, Ebonyi, Rivers, Bayelsa, Edo, Abia, Benue, Akwa Ibom and Kogi states thus turning the place to a “pilgrimage” of sorts. The free surgery programme has provided free eye surgery for over twenty six thousand patients since it came into inception in 2003. Surgeries that ordinarily would cost between N75,000 and N120,000 in private medical facilities and between  N30,000 and N50,000 in teaching hospitals are done for free.

While Cross River State government provides the infrastructure such as surgical equipment, hospital wards, operating theatre, clinic, residence for the expatriate doctors involved and project vehicles, the Tulsi Chanrai Foundation bears the cost of maintaining the expatriate doctors and managers, drugs and consumables, supportive staff, and the day-to-day maintenance of the centre.

“Every patient who steps into this centre, rich or poor, has the same quality eye surgery and receives free drugs and free post operation checks”, Dr Richard Sylvester, the Project Manager said. And almost always, the fifty bed-ward space flows with patients operated on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays by the team of expatriate ophthalmologists.

“We dedicate Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays for surgeries and out patient screening is on Mondays and Fridays while, every Saturday, we do post-operation check up for those operated within the week and the previous week”. Sylvester said to make sure that everyone who needs the free eye services is fished out in the numerous villages especially those in Cross River State, the state government has a brand new bus that provides dedicated services ferreting patients from the eighteen local government areas of the state to the eye centre in Calabar at no cost.

“There is a screening centre in each of the eighteen local government areas in the state to identify and bring people who need surgery to Calabar to be attended to.  From  2003 to February 2013, we have carried out 26,633 surgeries for people all over the South-south and South-east states.”

The project, which started as a  trial camp in 2003 and attended to just 1,119 patients during its six months camping, has, because of its initial success, blossomed to a full- fledged eye surgical centre which accounts for the high number of people besieging  the centre daily.

“This is keeping with the Governor Liyel Imoke’s policy of reaching out to those who need government the most. The programme was meant for people of the state but there is no discriminating where the person comes from as everyone is attended to the same way free”, Mr Chris Ita, Chief Press Secretary to  Imoke, said of the programme. To sustain the programme, the Tulsi Chanrai Foundation has begun the training of six indigenous ophthalmologists both within and in India.