After being nearly blind her entire life, a young Potchefstroom girl can now open her eyes and see a much brighter future than before.
Seventeen-year-old Tshenolo Jafta cannot remember a time in her life when she could see clearly. Since she was a small child, she had very weak eyesight.
She was in Potch Primary school and always had to sit in the front of the class to see what was written on the board, but even then she couldn’t see properly, so her teachers had her classmates help her.
It was her primary school teacher, Ms Marita Basson, who decided to get Tshenolo help. A local specialist identified Tshenolo’s short-sightedness as keratoconus, a thinning and bulging of the cornea.
This condition made her eyesight so bad that she had to put her nose to her books to read what it said. It also had a negative impact on her school work and made her life very difficult.
The only possible way to treat the condition was for Tshenolo to undergo cornea transplants in both her eyes. Unfortunately, the waiting period for this type of surgery is very long and it is a very expensive procedure.
Tshenolo lives with her single mother, who has no income, and younger brother in a shack of about four square metres. It consists of four walls and contains a double bed and a counter with a microwave and some appliances. They could not possibly afford for Tshenolo to receive the transplants.
Marita put the wheels in motion and began collecting funds for Tshenolo’s cornea transplants. In August 2013, with the help of the community and the NWU’s Potchefstroom campus, Tshenolo was able to receive her first cornea transplant after a long wait for a suitable cornea.
Five years later, on 1 August, Tshenolo was notified that her second cornea had arrived, and she could finally get the second transplant. The transplant took place the following day in Johannesburg and was a success.
Although Tshenolo’s eye still has to heal after receiving the new cornea, she can finally see for the first time in her life, and when it heals, she will be able to see as well as any other person.
‘I am very happy that I can finally see now, I think I have a much better future thanks to this,’ the grateful girl said.
Her mother, Poppie, said that the entire journey was worth it since her daughter can now see.
Tshenolo, who is now in Potch Secondary School, says that being able to see motivates her to excel at school. She has physics, mathematics, history and life science as school subjects and wants to study forensic sciences after matric.
‘I definitely now have a chance for a better life, now that I can see,’ she said.
