One of the biggest problems facing Ethiopia, one of the poorest countries in Africa, is cataract disease. Due to lack of financial resources and shortage of eye specialists, thousands of cataract patients continue to live in darkness. The number of Ethiopian people suffering from cataract disease is estimated to be around 500,000 , whereas, there are only 200 eye specialists serving this huge community of cataract patients.

TIKA (Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency) and IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation have been co-running the Cataract Project in Africa for 3 years and helping cataract patients regain their vision.
Recently, IHH and TIKA relief team run a series of eye examinations in Mek’ele city of Ethiopia’s Tigray province. Together with patients arriving from neighboring regions, total number of people who underwent eye examinations has reached 1000. Cataract surgeries were performed on 210 of those patients and they regained their vision. Including the recent operations, 4010 people were provided with cataract surgeries in Ethiopia. Aid team’s goal is to operate on 10,000 people in the country.
So far, IHH has provided eyes surgery to 40,151 people in 10 African countries and restored their ability to see. The number is planned to reach 100,000 in 2 years.

Ihsan Ozyurek, project manager of the cataract campaign, noted that IHH and TIKA have provided eye surgeries in Ethiopia for 3 years and added: “We are funding our project with donations from our generous volunteers. A cataract surgery can be done with a 120-TL donation.” You, too, can help one person in Africa to regain their vision by donating 120 TL.