Arlet Kutoserlowo

This is Arlet. Five years ago she began losing her sight due to blinding cataracts in both eyes. She lost her independence. She couldn't cook for herself, she couldn't gather food. She even lost all of her valuables as she couldn't see where she had left them. She feared for her future and who would take care of her.

Arlet lives on her own in a village in a remote region of Malekula Island in Vanuatu. Her husband died 20 years ago. A team of Fred Hollows Foundation-trained nurses visited the area on a routine trip and screened her eyes. It was during this visit that they diagnosed her with bilateral cataracts.

But cultural traditions, and a longstanding legacy of a visiting foreign surgical team damaging eyes, meant that Arlet met huge resistance when she showed an interest in having sight-saving cataract surgery. The village chief and elders strongly advised her not to go ahead with it and her younger family members gave her no support. It was her eldest daughter Pauline, a nun living in Tahiti, who had the faith to take a stand. She moved her mother from the village and set up a temporary home. And there they waited for the day that a surgical team, funded and trained by the Fred Hollows Foundation NZ, would make the arduous trip to the island to perform cataract surgery.

Arlet's temporary home was several hours from the remote eye camp that was set up in a neighbouring village. Arlet and Pauline made the journey by foot and arrived dusty, tired and anxious.

In the scorching heat they sat on a traditional pandamus mat under a huge mango tree as they waited for Arlet's name to be called for surgery. Arlet was extremely apprehensive but she said that she felt reassured by the local Vanuatu surgical team. Vanuatu's only eye surgeon, Dr Johnson Kasso, would be performing her surgery, assisted by theatre nurse, Annie Bong.

With no electricity and no running water, the 'operating theatre' was extremely basic and Dr Kasso found himself sitting on a pile of concrete building blocks as there was no chair in the local village.

The surgery went smoothly. Pauline and Arlet were hosted by the villagers and given food and shelter for the night. The following morning they woke early and met Dr Kasso at the clinic. As he removed the bandage, she looked out in to the distance, and tears rolled down her cheeks. She leaned over and took his hand in hers and said:  "I can see! I can see so well. Thank you, thank you!".

When Arlet and Pauline returned to her home, worried friends and family gathered to see if she was okay. Arlet proudly showed off her 'new eyes' and wanted to cook traditional laplap on her open fire to prove how well she could see.

She wears sunglasses now to protect her eyes from the strong Pacific sunlight. And Pauline will stay with her until she is confident to live alone. Arlet couldn't stop smiling. She was overwhelmed that she could see so clearly. She held Pauline's hand and asked to say thank you so much to The Fred Hollows Foundation, for creating this program that has brought back her sight. "I'm so happy to be home. I have my life back again," she said.

Arlet was one of many patients who had their sight-restored during a surgical outreach trip to Malekula Island in Vanuatu recently. Dr Kasso was trained thanks to funding by NZAid and The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ. While he is the only Ophthalmologist in Vanuatu, he is supported by a competent team of eye care nurses who have completed their training also through The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ.

They are now working in hospitals and clinics throughout Vanuatu as part of the National Eye Care Program, which was set up in 2001 by Dr John Szetu and The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ.

Watch a report from TVNZ's Breakfast on blindness in Vanuatu