Mariam’s Story

Eye Surgery Gives Little Girl Confidence

Now a happy, healthy girl, Mariam lived with crossed eyes for three unhappy and difficult years.

Around the time Mariam was three, Mariam’s mother noticed that her daughter’s eyes were crossing. She took her to an ophthalmologist, who said the only answer was crossed eye surgery. As a single, unemployed mother, she could not afford her child’s strabismus eye surgery.

With seemingly no way for Mariam to have the eye correction procedure, Mariam and her mother began wishing and dreaming that “somehow, some way, their dreams would come true.”

As each year went by, nothing changed — until Mariam’s kindergarten teacher put her in touch with the Armenian EyeCare Project.

Dr. Anna Hovakimyan was able to perform Mariam’s child strabismus surgery at no cost to the family. “After three years of wishing Mariam could have surgery, it really was a dream come true,” said her mother.