GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip—Imad Abu Wadi barely slept after losing his right eye during the summer 2014 war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The 26-year-old, then engaged, was waiting eagerly for his wedding. But with a red, hollow eyeless socket, he imprisoned himself at home.
“I was really suffering. I didn’t go out to avoid running into someone who might say something to me,” Abu Wadi said.
A year after the injury caused by an airstrike near his home, Abu Wadi is now married and feeling confident, thanks to an artificial eye he received two weeks before the wedding.
The ocular prosthesis was designed and made by Al-Radwan medical center, which is run by the Gaza-based charity Merciful Hands. The group, which is not connected to a British charity with the same name, receives funding from Muslim countries that include Turkey, Jordan, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Gulf Arab states.
Established in 2013, the center assists those who lost an eye to illness, congenital defects or injury, including in conflicts.
Yousef Hussein, an ocularist at Al-Radwan, says the center is the first in Gaza to design and fit artificial eyes. Prosthetic eyes used to be imported ready-made, which in many cases caused unwanted excretions in the eye socket.
“I felt people are very interested in this issue, including old people, and even more among married women or girls,” said Hussein, who was an optometrist before completing a 10-month course in prosthetics in Jordan.
Designing and installing a prosthetic eye costs between $1,000 and $1,500. In Gaza’s poor economy, these sums are not within everyone’s reach.
But help is often available. As a war casualty, Abu Wadi got the costs covered by the Health Ministry. Various local and foreign donors, including Islamic charities from Gulf states and Europe, cover the costs for those unable to pay.
