ThanhNien Newspaper comes to aid of poor blind in Vietnam

Thanh Nien newspaper and an Australia-based charity organization have provided financial assistance for performing cataract surgeries on 200 people at a medical center in a central Vietnamese province.

Thanh Nien and the Fred Hollows Foundation provided VND140 million (US$8,750) to the center in Quang Ngai.

Thanks to the Sight for Life project, a total of 1,100 people have regained eyesight.
This is for the 25^th time that Thanh Nien funded cataract surgeries all over the country and the fifth time in Quang Ngai.

“My eyes can see, I am so happy,” 76-year-old Nguyen Bao of Son Tinh district said joyously.

Another man wept: “I feel as if I have been born a second time.”

Sight for Life was launched by Thanh Nien in 2003 to help needy patients, and has so far benefited more than 1,700 people at a cost of well over VND1 billion ($63,000). The Central Eye Hospital said around 80,000 people (0.1 percent of the population) suffered from cataract annually, but many still could not afford the now-routine surgery.