This is the story of a person who was losing her eye-sight every single day and had no money to pay for the surgery to fix the problem.

Lidiya Mikhailovna lives in the town of Severodonetsk, eastern Ukraine. The woman has two daughters. One of them, Viktoria, is disabled due to deafness and she and her children live with Lidiya. Viktoria receives disability allowance from the government and with this money she provides for the whole family and  her blind mother.

Lidia Mikhailovna who is only 53 was not able to take care of herself due to the vision problems that started back in 2014. When she started losing sight in her right eye, she went to see an eye doctor and was diagnosed with cataract. Unfortunately, the woman had no money for the needed surgery and the only thing that she could do was to try and pick up the glasses to help her see better.

Unfortunately, her vision ability decreased every year and soon she started losing sight in her left eye too.

Lyidiya couldn’t work anymore but she was also too young to receive a pension (she still needs to work for another 8 years to get her pension). Unfortunately, she was not able to work – since her vision deteriorated she was only able to see bright light and silhouettes and tell black from white but she was not able to see the contours of objects. Lidiya hadn’t been going outside for a long time.

The cataract surgery cost was 16,000 UAH ($640) per one eye. Obviously, there was no way Lidiya could afford this on her own.

With tears in her eyes, Lidiya shared, “My only dream is to be able to see my children and grandchildren and people around. I want to go outside. I only dream at night that I am working again – I am not that old yet and I have physical strength for that. Unfortunately, the situation is only becoming increasingly difficult: I can’t help myself, I don’t have the money, my children don’t have the money, and it becomes harder each day. I understand that without the help of God and good people, I just can’t cope with my misfortune!”

Thankfully,  Lidia’s grandchildren were involved in children’s ministry at the Severodonetsk missionary center supported by CBN Ukraine. They told children’s minister Yanina Ivanova that their grandmother was completely blind. Yanina called CBN’s Director of Humanitarian and Disaster relief projects Galina Kucher and asked to help this family. Later on, when LCS project agreed to fund her surgery, missionaries also took responsibility to accompany the woman to the hospital and during the whole process were there to pray for her and support her.

Lidiya’s daughter Viktoria shares her words of gratitude to everyone who helped this surgery happen: “I am grateful to the CBN partners for giving my mother the opportunity to see again, live a full life, and look after her grandchildren. She was helpless, could not take care of herself, could not do anything around the house, but now she is a full-fledged person, now she is the same person as I remember her from my childhood.  Thank you very much for not leaving out family in the times of troubles!”

Now, after the surgery,  Lidiya will be able to work again and provide for the family. She is very happy that she can be useful for society and her family again!

Yanina Ivanova, the missionary from Severodonetsk, shares: “It’s hard to describe the emotions of our team when we watched Lydia see the light again after the long time of darkness. We cried with her! It was so touching!” Yanina helped this surgery happen and was able to share the Word of God with Lydia and her family! 

Friends, you can also become an actor of good changes in the life of people living in war-affected eastern Ukraine. You can make any donation here and bring even more more kindness and love into this world!