Krim Yum

As the faces of Krim Yum's children hazed then faded with the loss of his eyesight, he grieved for the sight of them.

He grieved still more for the unseen faces of his next two children, born only when his sight was gone.

For as little as $50, the cataracts that robbed Krim Yum of the faces of his children could be treated and his sight restored.

Only one or two generations away from the ravages of Pol Pot, Cambodia still carries a devastating backlog of 90,000 cases of cataract blindness.

A further 19,000 new cases develop each year.

Yum and his wife Lake Phat are traditional musicians, eking out their meagre lot with their six children in the achingly poor Cambodian Province of Kampong Thom.

As his cataracts developed and Krim Yum gradually lost his sight, he was forced to withdraw from his livelihood as a musician and let his music students go.

He missed his beloved music with a passion, but far worse was the impact on his daily life. If he was alone with no one to help him, he could barely leave the hut to toilet, and had to shower holding his clothes.

That was in 2005.

Then Yum heard word of the Kampong Thom Eye Unit, (which is supported by The Fred Hollows Foundation) where another villager had his eyesight restored. (The surgeon, Dr Kak Kakada, had encouraged the villager to spread the word about the clinic. He is passionate about what he does.)

Yum's spirits lifted.

His daughter took him by moto (motorcycle) for his first operation. He returned a week later for his second. Each return trip cost him 3000 Riel (about AUD$1.10) but the operation and food during his stay were all free of charge.

Now, Yum is active again. He works around the house preparing food, collecting firewood, feeding the pigs, working in the vegetable garden, caring for his children and collecting water from the well.

With his wife he works in the rice paddy fields to feed their family of eight and to supplement their income from music.

"While I was blind," Yum said, "I couldn't see my children; now I can see them I love them so very much".

A cataract operation doesn't just restore a person's eye sight. It liberates them from poverty, the heartache of dependency and a likely early death.

The Fred Hollows Foundation has achieved a huge amount in Cambodia. In 2005 alone, three hundred and twenty eye health personnel and workers were trained. Sixty-five outreach clinics were held in three provinces, screening and treating 4,278 people.

Subsidies were provided to screen 7,000 poor patients and perform 1,504 operations. Children were given free spectacles. The Foundation's Nepalese partner, the Tilganga Eye Centre, was able to provide mentoring for the staff of three eye units, a brilliant example of cross-country development of The Foundation's work.

There are now eye units in 12 provincial hospitals in the three provinces in which The Foundation works.

Gifts to The Foundation help train and equip eye health centres and subsidise operations, which means that donations help the people in these poorest of countries help themselves, long term.

Our future plans involve establishing the first residency training program, to create 17 new ophthalmologists in Cambodia over  two years, an extraordinary doubling of the number of trained ophthalmologists in the country.

Our supporters are not just saving sight - they are giving individuals and families a future.

"Now", said Yum, "I can see my children and my wife. Thank you so much". His thanks go to all of The Fred Hollows Foundation's supporters for making his sight restoring operation possible.

A donation of just $25, or in Yum's case $50 (allowing operations for both of his eyes), can liberate the cataract blind  from poverty and dependency.