Miracles Day

A Miracle of Sight is a $35 gift that gives someone blinded by cataracts the simple 12-minute sight-saving surgery needed to restore their sight. Turning blindness into sight in 12-minutes… A Miracle!

Help give the miracle of sight to our near neighbours in Papua New Guinea (PNG) today.

All it takes is a 12-minute operation to restore the sight for someone living with cataracts. This is the miracle you can be part of today.

Today the New Zealand Government, through its Aid Programme, will multiply any gift you give to PNG times five!

Become an Eye Champion and help restore sight for just $35 per month or give a one-off gift of $420 – and with the New Zealand Aid Programmes match – help more adults receive the miracle of sight-saving cataract surgery.

Your generosity, along with the New Zealand Aid Programme multiplier x5, will help transform the lives of people living with a disability in PNG by:

• Funding sight-saving cataract surgeries, and other eye health services, including providing glasses.
• Training new ophthalmologists.
• Helping to develop inclusive education for those living with blindness, or who have low vision, by providing braille and tactile skills to infants, pre-schoolers, school age children and adults.

The cbm-funded team in PNG are ready to go, and all they now need are generous Kiwis like you to jump aboard!

Did you know?

Living with blindness, due to cataracts, in the dense and dangerous rain forest, Maria lost hope that anyone would ever restore her sight.

Maria was completely resigned to being blind. But she believed in Jesus. Every single day, she prayed for a miracle.

The endless struggle of being blind in poverty was so hard on Maria. No longer could she farm her little vegetable patch for food to sell at the local market. Because of her blindness, she lost her livelihood, causing her the double disadvantage of poverty and disability.

Then her husband died. She lost the love of her life, but also her caregiver. She moved in with her daughter’s family. Unable to help with chores, she felt like such a burden.

Going to the toilet was a degrading ordeal – a pit in the ground at the end of a muddy track. She often fell. A horrible indignity.

With no-one to guide her, she couldn’t visit friends or go to church to sing and hear the Word. She could barely tell light from dark. No objects. No faces.

What hurt the most was never seeing her grandchildren’s lovely faces. That was her greatest dream. Being unable to bond with them broke her heart. Through her tears, though, her miracle was coming closer!

Because of the generosity of people like you, a cbm outreach worker thankfully found Maria while travelling through the Highlands, looking for people with disabilities who are often hidden away out of shame or fear.

They gave Maria the good news that a cbm outreach clinic was coming to a village near her. First, her left eye and then, a year later, her right eye would receive sight-saving surgery. Maria was so thankful to God, and to generous people like you, even if her second eye surgery was going to be a year later. This would never happen in New Zealand, but that tells you how important your generosity is to our near neighbours in PNG.

Maria hardly dared to hope. She had been blind for so long, her faith was as small as a mustard seed – but that was enough, nothing was impossible. She prayed for the miracle gift of sight and believed God’s promise in Matthew 17:20.

When her family heard the wonderful news that she would receive sight-saving cataract surgery, they rallied around for the bus fare. They walked with her on the long, arduous track through dense bush and slippery tracks, to the road. One rode with her on the bus, to make sure she made it safely to the cbm outreach clinic.

There, Maria joined an excited but apprehensive group of cataract patients, who would all receive their surgery at the same time to keep costs down.

The skilled cbm-funded ophthalmologist was able to give the miracle of sight by removing the blinding cataract from Maria’s left eye and replacing it with a crystal clear new lens. Thanks to the support of generous people like you, she received the light of life again!

Maria was overjoyed when her eye bandage was removed. “I can now see as well as a child out of that eye! I have my vision back!”

Going back to church! Prayer nights! Visiting friends! Growing and selling her vegetables! Doing household chores! She no longer felt she was a burden. Her dignity was restored. No more falls or relying on her family members for her personal hygiene.

As promised, a year later, thanks to generous people like you, the cbm outreach clinic returned and Maria received her second miracle of sight-saving surgery on her right eye.

After each eye surgery, Maria marvelled at the beauty of the trees and long grasses growing around her home. The towering mountains. She thanked God, and people like you, and the cbm outreach clinic, for restoring her sight.

She no longer had to dream of her miracle. She can now live it. With clear eyes, she can see a long, healthy and independent life ahead of her, surrounded by her precious family and grandchildren.

Whether you’ve joined us in saving sight before, or it’s your first time, we can’t wait to show you what a day of Miracles looks like!