NUNUFAR’S STORY
“When the patch came off, I noticed my eyesight had completely restored… I was so happy I didn’t know how to react.”
Nunufar lives in the small village of Yeghegnavan near the Armenia-Turkey border with her husband, Vartan. For the past 27 years, Nunufar has been the only source of income for her family and the sole caregiver to her husband, who is bedridden and unable to work due to his poor health. Nunufar earns a living from farming her land. Unfortunately, she started having problems with her sight a few years ago.
“She would complain ‘Vartan, I can’t help you, my eyesight is fading,’” Vartan remembers. “Her loss of sight really impacted my life.”
“Due to my poor sight, I would accidentally give him the wrong medication,” Nunufar says.
Because of a lack of finances, Nunufar could not afford to travel to Yerevan to receive the cataract surgery she needed. She also was unable to farm her land. She recalls when her grandson, Ashot, would come to visit and help. But since the Second Karabagh War in 2020, Ashot has been missing. For this reason and others, Nunufar was hopeless.
“I often thought about poisoning myself,” Nunufar admitted. “I simply couldn’t take it anymore.”
Nunufar’s luck turned around when she learned of the Armenian EyeCare Project and our Mobile Eye Hospital. Nunufar visited our mobile clinic when it was stationed near her town and was finally able to receive the cataract surgery she so desperately needed.
“When she arrived, she was blind in both eyes,” Dr. Asatur Hovsepyan, the chief surgeon aboard the AECP Mobile Eye Hospital said. “After the surgery, her eyesight has been restored.”
“When the patch came off, I noticed my eyesight had completely restored,” Nunufar says. “I was so happy I didn’t know how to react. I was in tears.”
Nunufar was ecstatic that she could see once more. She was also grateful she could return to doing all the things she needed to do. “Now that I can see, I’m able to farm the land,” she says. “I’m able to walk again, I’m able to care for my husband…”
“Her eye surgery, not only did it help her, but it benefited all of us,” Vartan says. “She is my only hope. She is the crown of my life and the only one that takes care of me.”
Best of all, Nunufar is once again filled with hope. “The aid from the donors gave me a new hope,” she says. “God bless them with a long life.”
Her only prayer now is the safe return of her grandson, so Nunufar can see him once more.
