Seven-year-old Theara had little hope of a normal childhood – she had been almost completely blind in both eyes since birth.

This little Cambodian girl is one of 302 patients who received free surgery as part of a recent 10-day eye intensive. The surgeries were supported by The Foundation, through the Australian Government’s Avoidable Blindness Initiative (ABI).

Theara is the youngest child of Phorn, a rice farmer. Born with cataracts in both eyes, she could only see for two metres. One night, her father heard a life-changing announcement on the radio - Kandal Eye Unit in a neighbouring province was offering free surgery for 10 days, to celebrate World Sight Day. Unsure if Theara could be helped, he decided to risk floodwaters to give her the chance at sight.

“I started to have a little ray of hope of fixing my daughter’s life,” Phorn said.

"I was going to give a try rather than seeing my dearest living in disability.”  

Theara’s family lives in a small village in Prey Veng province, in southern Cambodia. It is a 100 kilometre trip to Kandal Eye Unit. Getting to the eye clinic was no easy matter. Because it was rainy season, their village was flooded. The journey was long and difficult. Theara and Phorn travelled for one hour by boat, then another hour by motorbike taxi. After a final two hour trip in a vegetable van, they reached the eye unit.

Once there, Theara was examined by the eye surgeon Dr Lun Mara, who received his training in modern cataract surgery techniques with The Foundation’s support. Dr Lun immediately diagnosed congenital cataracts and booked Theara in for surgery.

Phorn urged Theara not to be scared as the medical team prepared her for surgery with an injection. Tears rolled down Theara’s cheeks but the brave little girl didn’t make a sound. She just looked at the face of Phorn who kept saying, “a farm daughter must be brave”.  Then, the medical team wheeled Theara into the operation room.

In no time at all, the operation was finished. Dr Lun Mara had removed one of Theara’s cataracts and replaced it with an intraocular lens, with the second cataract to be removed in a future surgery. A nurse took Theara to the recovery ward, where Phorn was waiting. That night he watched over his daughter as she slept peacefully.

“I could not sleep, I felt tense and happy mixing inside my mind,” said Phorn. “I cannot express how eager I was to hear her say ‘yes, I can see it’, when she looked at an eye chart.”

The next morning, Theara’s eye patch was removed. The nurse pointed to the letters on the eye chart and asked Theara to read them out.

As she read them with ease, a big smile formed on Phorn’s face. His worries vanished and he was filled with hope. It was an unforgettable moment for father and daughter.

“The doctor has fixed my daughter’s life,” said Phorn. “The surgery on my daughter made me completely believe and trust in our local doctors."

“I sincerely thank Australians for supporting the free surgery and increasing the capacity to our doctors. This is an enormous unbreakable resource for the Cambodian people.”

During the World Sight Day eye intensive, 231 people received cataract surgery, a further 71 had other sight restoring eye operations and 1,482 people were screened for eye conditions.