I

t was unusual for Yessy Lahay to wander the streets alone. After cataracts robbed him of the sight in both eyes, the 62-year-old couldn't help but be afraid a car or motorcycle would hit him.

"I saw everything in white," he says. "I just couldn't go anywhere. I spent my days only at home."

But one morning recently, Yessy left his home and walked to the nearby market to wait for The Jakarta Post to arrive. Before he lost his sight a year ago, he often walked there to pick up any guests who might have gotten lost on their way to his hard-to-locate house. Now, just after getting back half his vision, Yessy is back to this old routine.

"It feels like I have new freedom now - traveling anywhere I want and meeting up with people," he says on the way back to his home.

"Can you believe that now I can travel to as far as Puncak *in West Java*, all alone?" he happily adds.

Not being able to see for one year certainly made Yessy suffer. He lost his job as a tent builder and could only hear the voices of his beloved grandchildren. This tore his heart apart as he used to play with them and loved to see their adorable faces.

"Now I can see them again," says the grandfather of two, adding with a laugh, "And I also read newspapers everyday now."

Yessy feels blessed to able to share the story of his new life after the successful cataract surgery he underwent a few months ago. The surgery, conducted as part of the Gerakan Matahati Peduli Kesehatan Mata (the Eye of the Heart Movement), has restored hope to thousands of visually impaired people from less fortunate families.

And Yessy is just one of them.

"I was in great shock when I opened my eyes and saw everything in white," says Yessy of the day he realized he had lost his sight. "I went to a doctor and asked for a pair of glasses. But what he said later truly hurt me: He told me I was blind due to cataracts and needed surgery to restore my sight."

His sadness and sense of hopelessness deepened when he learned that the operation cost Rp 10 million.

"I was just a tent builder - how could I get that kind of money?"

Lucky for him, one of his relatives knows a doctor at the Jakarta Eye Center. From the doctor, Yessy found out that the hospital was working with Matahati to carry out free cataract operations.

"I couldn't describe how I felt then, knowing that I could register for the surgery," says Yessy, who's now hoping to get the sight in his other eye restored. "I'm grateful to have my left eye operated on, but hopefully I can get the sight in my right eye back too."

Just like Yessy, 67-year-old Ngakan Ketut Karsa is enjoying his new life after a cataract operation carried out by Matahati last year. Having both of his eyes operated on, he says, was something he could never have afforded.

"Before, in the 1980s, I suffered from cataracts too, but could still afford surgery that cost some Rp 500,000," Karsa says. "But today? No . I don't think I could afford Rp 10 million."

Getting back the sight in both his eyes was something he never expected. Now, at his senior age, Karsa is proud that he has been able to get a job at a real estate company. His job? Checking documents - something he couldn't have done without the surgery.

"Well, I still need a pair of glasses now to check these documents," the grandfather of 15 says, showing his thick glasses. "But at least I can read."

Perhaps not many of us can imagine the joy of having a second chance in life, the way Karsa and Yessy have. But to reflect the words of Pandji Wisaksana, one of those behind Matahati, maybe we can put ourselves in their shoes.

"Just imagine when we're suddenly trapped in a blackout. We would get all these feelings of panic and fear, wouldn't we?" says Pandji.

"But being in that situation would only be temporary. Now you can imagine how it is for the blind, who have to live in the dark for the days, weeks, months or even years."

According to Pandji, also the co-founder of the Indonesian Eye Bank, around 85 percent of human communications depend on sight.

"Restoring the sight of just one blind person is like lighting a candle," says Pandji. "So can you imagine how it would be to light thousands of candles?"

Wandi S. Brata, the general secretary of Matahati, says that Indonesia has the highest record of blindness among Asian countries. Around 1.5 percent of Indonesians are visually impaired - which means around 4 million of them are living in the dark, or something like it. Mathematically speaking, Wandi adds, one person in Indonesia loses their vision every three minutes.

Wandi adds that 50 percent of blindness is caused by cataracts - an eye disease that involves the clouding or opacification of the natural lens of the eye - while other causes include trachoma (an infectious disease of the eyelid caused by the bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis) and glaucoma (a disease of the optic nerve).

Surprisingly, he adds, around 80 percent of blindness can be prevented and even cured. The problem is, Wandi points out, "most of the sufferers come from less fortunate families. They can't afford medical treatment."

For this reason, he says, public participation is truly needed to help the blind get their second chance in life. To date, around 1.2 million blind people from less fortunate families are still waiting for cataract surgery. A single cataract operation, according to Wandi, costs between Rp 5 million and Rp 10 million. However, because Matahati works with the doctors of the Indonesian Eye Specialists Association (Perdami) and several hospitals, the cost can be reduced to only Rp 500,000.

"Just imagine what you can do with this one-time donation of Rp 500,000: You can give a blind person sight for a life time," Wandi adds with smile.

Matahati is a joint initiative of the Kompas-Gramedia group, Perdami, the Indonesian Lions Club Foundation and various donors. Launched in November 2008, the movement has also secured support from the Jakarta Eye Center, Trisakti School of Management, Atmajaya Catholic University, Summarecon and Standard Chartered Bank. From November to August this year, Matahati carried out around 5,500 cataract surgeries. Pandji says he expects the movement to reach achieve up to 10,000 surgeries.

"Do you know how meaningful it is for the blind to get their sight back?" Pandji says. "It's like they're saying *I got my second life!'

"Perhaps they weren't able to watch TV or see their grandchildren before," he goes on. "But once their sight is restored, they can see it all and have a new world."