At 66 years old, Oscar Ovidio Arita had spent much of his life working as a garbage collector—an honest but demanding job he carried out with dedication for eight years on the sanitation team.
However, as time passed, cataracts began to cloud his world.
At first it was a slight shadow… then a constant haze… until the day came when he could hardly see at all.
He had to stop working. The street—his daily route—became an uncertain maze. Even inside his own home, stumbles, falls, and bruises became frequent. He struggled to recognize faces, even those of his four children; he lived with the weight of being a widower who could no longer support his family as he once had.
Ovidio describes those months as a darkness that moved forward without stopping.
That was when he arrived at CAMO’s Social Ophthalmology Program and the Robles Ophthalmology Center, where he was given a new opportunity.
Specialists operated on his left eye using phacoemulsification—a technique used to remove cataracts—and placed an intraocular lens.
That lens had been donated… and within it, two stories came together: the story of the one who gives without knowing who will receive it, and the story of the one who gains a second chance to live with dignity.
“I couldn’t work anymore because my sight just wasn’t there… I slowly kept losing my vision, and I was very worried because I have four children and I’m a widower,” Ovidio shared.
Today, after surgery, his vision is returning. For him, seeing again is not just the ability to work; it is walking with confidence, recognizing the faces he loves, and feeling that he can still move forward.
