A Mother’s Hope: Three Generations Facing Trachoma

This Mother’s Day, we celebrate the strength and resilience of mothers, especially those who face challenges most of us cannot imagine.

Lambore lives with her daughter, Demekech, and her daughter‑in‑law, Tesfasnes, where three generations of women look after one another. Although Lambore received surgery on one eye from Orbis‑trained health workers, her untreated eye still causes her pain. To ease the discomfort, her family gently removes the lashes that turn inward, which offers brief relief before the pain returns.

Sadly, trachoma doesn’t just affect Lambore, it affects the whole household. Tesfasnes cares for her three children and manages the home while facing her own eye discomfort. And now, Demekech's two young daughters have also started to show symptoms.

“They cry often and cling to me,” she says. “It breaks my heart.”

Lambore and Tesfasnes receive surgery from Orbis-trained health workers to relieve their pain, and the children receive soothing eye ointment that treats the infection and protects their sight.

After years of suffering, the family can finally see a future filled with comfort, healing, and the chance to live free from pain.

Access to eye care can change everything. It means mothers no longer have to watch their children suffer from diseases that could have been prevented. And it gives children the chance to grow up free from lifelong eye damage.

Lambore, Demekech, and Tesfasnes share the same hope: children growing up free from the pain that shapes their own lives. Orbis’s work brings that hope closer, providing treatment, training local health workers, and ensuring families have access to the care they need.

This Mother’s Day, Lambore’s story reminds us that with access to eye care, families can live a life free from pain. With timely treatment and trained health workers, families can see clearly again, and mothers can care for their children without the weight of preventable pain.