DAVID ADAMS speaks to Jane Edge, CBM Australia CEO, about the upcoming ‘Miracles Day’ this Thursday, 25th August…
Every minute around the world a child is born somewhere with cataracts – a clouding of the lens in the eye – and while it’s a simple and relatively inexpensive procedure for them to be removed, in many developing nations where finances and medical expertise may be lacking, it can signal the start of a life sentence of hardship.
Christian international development organisation CBM Australia is among those working to ensure that doesn’t happen, both for infants and for others who may contract cataracts through an injury or as a result of aging.
A LIFE RENEWED: During a visit to Bangladesh last year, Jane Edge, CEO of CBM Australia, met Ramzan Ali, shown here after surgery to remove cataracts meant he could see for the first time in five years. Below – Jane discusses cataract surgery with Dr Uddar Mallick, who has performed some 25,000 of them during his career. PICTURES: CBM Australia.
“I’ve had people actually say to me really it’s like their life is restored because in the poorest places where CBM’s present, blindness has significant impacts on the quality of life, on people being part of their community…”
– Jane Edge
To that end, this Thursday, 25th August, CBM Australia is holding its annual ‘Miracles Day’ with the aim of raising enough money – some $800,000 – to fund at least 25,000 life-changing surgeries, what the CBM team term ‘miracles’.
Jane Edge, the organisation’s CEO, has seen firsthand the difference paying for a 12 to 15 minute, $32 procedure to remove cataracts can make to people’s lives.
“It’s extraordinary,” she says, recalling a recent visit to Bangladesh. “To see and meet someone before that surgery, then have them come in and have the surgery and 24 hours later off comes the patch and their sight’s restored.
“I’ve had people actually say to me really it’s like their life is restored because in the poorest places where CBM’s present, blindness has significant impacts on the quality of life, on people being part of their community…”
Cataracts, which affect as many as 20 million people around the world, are a leading cause of avoidable blindness and account for 51 per cent of all blindness across the globe.
Avoidable blindness, meanwhile, is a problem which is largely confined to the world’s poorest nations with CBM citing statistics showing as many as 90 per cent of all cases are found there, thanks to a lack of access to healthcare services.
Blindness can effect many aspects of a person’s life, from attending school to employment prospects and preventing older people from helping out with household chores or helping to look after children.
“The impact goes beyond that individual to a whole family…and beyond that a community…” notes Ms Edge. “It’s extremely difficult (when) you’re already talking about terribly poor situations.”
While CBM’s international network works in about 45 countries (through which it performs around 600,000 eye operations a year, a figure which has equated to more than 12 million worldwide since 1966), CBM Australia supports work through its local partner organisations specifically in 16 countries in Asia and Africa including Vietnam, Indonesia, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Ethiopia, Cameroon, Tanzania and Niger.
As well as restoring sight to individuals, funds raised on Miracles Day and through other CBM appeals are also used to help train ophthalmologists and healthcare professionals and to put in place infrastructure such screening programs and post-operative care.
“It’s an immediate sight-saving moment for an individual but it’s also a long-term investment that means the work can continue…” says Ms Edge of what happens to the donated funds. “There’s a whole lot of things that go on, apart from the surgery.”
While people support Miracles Day – which is predominantly advertised through Christian radio stations across the country, at least four of whom will this year have people in the field in Vietnam for the day – for a variety of reasons, Ms Edge notes that for some people, it’s a bit more personal.
“I speak to many CBM supporters who understand exactly what it feels like (to have cataracts) because they’ll have had cataract surgery themselves,” she says.
And she adds that many of those who receive the surgery thanks to CBM supporters are simply overwhelmed by the generosity which has made it possible for them.
“Whenever I meet people and talk to them about their situations, they primarily want a message to come back that ‘I’m just so grateful. Thank-you to those people who made this possible’. And that’s the only thing that we can ever ask – if we can make a difference and extend the kind of care that Jesus would ask us to extend, to create an environment where justice and access to opportunity is the same for all people, it’s just a fantastic thing to see and be a part of.”
Ms Edge says that the work of CBM is, at its core, about upholding the role model of Jesus Christ.
“And how could we do it any better than by making sure that where we can deliver this kind of important change, that we get on and do it?” she says. “For me, personally, James chapter two is something that’s been powerful my whole life – which is ‘Faith without works is dead’. That’s a real driver for me because I feel so incredibly privileged to be in a role that allows me to live out my faith in such an amazing way.”
And for those who are thinking about giving to the appeal, Ms Edge says that $32 is a small price to pay to restore someone’s sight. “That’s an extraordinary gift. It’s a lot less than a cup of coffee a day over a month, that’s for sure.”
