For the first seven years of his life Mivuyo Sintu, who lives with his mother Lindu in Kleinmond, lived with severe astimatism. To him people didn’t have distinct faces, colours were blurred, mountains, trees and objects were blurred shapes and when he tried to read the letters on pages they didn’t sit still and were stacked upon each other. School was a nightmare and children laughed at him.
About three years ago he was taken to an optometrist who explained his condition and the diagnosis was not good. He was virtually blind and glasses were going to be expensive and out of the mother’s reach. A couple of weeks later, thanks to Rooiels Outreach, the optician slid a pair of glasses with thick frames (to accommodate the lenses), over Mivuyo’s ears and a whole new world wakened to him.
He looked up and saw his mother and younger brother more clearly than ever before and smiled. When he stepped outside he was quite bewildered. He discovered that the blurry green mass on trees were actually separate leaves and the grey mounds in the distance took shape as mountains.
When he recently visited the optician for a routine check up they were once again told that Mivuyo is and always will be visually impared but there had been a slight improvement in his vision. He needed new glasses and bigger frames. Once again Rooiels Outreach came to the rescue and paid for his glasses.
According to his teacher Mivuyo, who is now 12 years old, still has to sit in the front of the classroom but there has been a considerable improvement in his schoolwork. He attempts new activities such as drawing and reading and is also managing to play ball with his friends. He no longer sits virtually on top of the TV screen.
Thank you Rooiels Otureach for transforming a little boy’s universe from a blur into a world where there are objects, colours, shapes and expressions – the world that all those with unimpaired eyesight inhabit and take for granted.
