Even though she has lost 80 percent of her vision, Isabel says she is confident about her future. Students in the dressmaking course plan out their designs.

SAN JOSÉ, Costa Rica - Poor eyesight has been on ongoing struggle for Isabel. Diagnosed with progressive severe myopia, Isabel has undergone more than 15 surgeries to correct her slowly deteriorating vision. Yet despite the multiple surgeries, today her vision is still limited to a mere 10 percent of its normal capacity.

And blindness is not the only personal battle she has had to face. "Three years ago my husband abandoned us,” she said. “And I was left to raise my two children on my own.”

Isabel receives a small disability pension from the government, but it is not enough to support her family and help repay the outstanding medical costs from her eye surgeries.

“Nobody wants to give me a job because people think I don't have the capacity for anything due to my eyesight problem,” she explained.

Things changed, however, when Isabel was told about the training courses offered by Operation Blessing in her city.

In November 2005, Operation Blessing moved into a large rented facility in San José to begin teaching technical courses in bakery, handiworks, cosmetology and dressmaking, with an enrollment of 28 students. These life skill courses, along with other OBI micro-enterprise projects, are designed to improve the quality of life for members of impoverished communities by teaching them skills for obtaining better employment, personal businesses and other career opportunities.

Immediately, Isabel signed on for the bakery class, determined to improve the economic condition of her family, she said.

“It has not been easy, with all the things that have happened,” she said. “But I know that God will bless me through this bakery course.”

Isabel's teacher, Flor agrees. "Isabel has worked very well during this whole bakery course and she has demonstrated a great capacity to carry out the tasks by means of the senses of touch and smell," Flor said.

OBI plans to graduate a class of 21 students - including Isabel - in late February. Already the graduating class is proving to be a success, with several students starting businesses out of their homes. Isabel, who wants to own a business as well, plans to begin advanced level bakery courses with OBI to make her goals a reality.

“Although I am blind, I still have a vision,” she said. “I am learning a lot here and very happy.”

But Isabel's vision has done more than just inspire personal change. It has also inspired her community. National Patronage for the Blind, an NGO in Costa Rica, is now coordinating with Operation Blessing to send a group of seven blind students to study at OBI's bakery course this March.

"Isabel is a brave woman," said her teacher. She has progressed in an amazing way and developed a remarkable capacity to work well in this course."

In addition to the courses offered throughout Latin America, OBI continues to effect change on a family and community level by engaging in other projects worldwide such as sewing centers in India, fish farms and gardening projects in Africa, learning centers in Ukraine, and goat enterprise projects in Bulgaria.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

This microenterprise venture is one of many Operation Blessing projects touching lives around the world. You can be a part of improving the quality of life for impoverished communities by supporting these and other life-changing programs.

 

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