Kenya: 300 refugees gets eye surgery in camp

By Gokhan Yilmaz

ISTANBUL (AA) - The Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA), Hayrat Foundation and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) have performed free eye surgeries for 300 people in Kenya’s northern town of Garissa in remembrance of July 15 failed coup attempt martyrs.

The diagnosis of 300 patients, who stayed in Dabaad Refugee Camp, was carried out under the control of Hayrat Foundation Health Coordinator Fatih Karabacak and TIKA Nairobi Coordinator Emre Yuksek, the Hayrat Foundation, a Turkish non-governmental organization, said in a statement on Sunday.

The patients underwent operations that will allow them to see in a short time.

Many families struggle to access basic needs in Garissa, one of the poorest counties located to the northeast of the East African nation of Kenya.

Many people in Garissa suffer from eye cataracts -cloudy cornea that result in blurred vision- due to exposure to harmful ultraviolet rays in the dry and always sunny county.

Apart from these, different age groups got eye surgery treatments in two health centers.

Medino Osman Yaris, mother of five children, told that she came from Somalia by walking for three days to get treatment.

Yaris said that she trusted Turkish doctors and was hopeful to be able to see again.

FETO and its U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gulen orchestrated the defeated coup of July 15, 2016, which left 251 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured.

Ankara also accuses FETO of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary.

*Writing by Gozde Bayar