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Life's not much fun when you can't see properly.
And for one family, that's a common complaint.
Meet the Timbangs.
They live in Tarlac, about two hours' drive north of Manila, in the Philippines.
The Timbangs have a rare genetic form of cataracts that has left three generations partially blind.
In 25 years, the Fred Hollows Foundation has never had a case like this, with so many members of a family affected.
"The kids are lucky if they can finish grade 6 because they can't even see the blackboard," grandmother Iluminada Timbang Paculanan said.
Seven of her children had cataracts, who in turn passed it on to their children.
Theirs is a hazy world and sunlight is unbearable.
Falling through the cracks
The Timbangs have fallen through the gaps of the Philippines health system.
"I approached several doctors but it was too expensive — between 50,000 and 70,000 pesos [$1,300-$1,800] — we just couldn't afford it," Layla Jake Timbang, mother of 10-year-old Marlon Jake, told 7.30.
She worked as a housekeeper in Jordan for two years but could not save enough money for the operation.
For Layla, her husband's family history of cataracts came as a surprise.
"I didn't realise at first, because he made sure it was always night when he courted me, so he didn't squint," she laughed.
"It was only after I got married that I found out about the family's eye problems."
10-minute transformation
With help from the Fred Hollows Foundation and a very capable provincial eye centre, 12 of the Timbangs had their eyes fixed.
The procedure is delicate but a highly trained surgeon only takes about 10 minutes to make a tiny incision, remove the cataract and insert a folded lens, that opens inside the eyeball.
After just a few hours, the patches come off and a blurry world is now clear.
For seven-year-old Maia Janella Garcia, it's a revelation.
She can see clearly and wants to use that opportunity to help others — she now wants to become a doctor.
Her cousin, Danielle Josua Pagco, also seven, wants to be an astronaut.
He is pretty sure there's a Filipino space program and his favourite planet is Jupiter.
Now, Danielle Josua won't have to sit at the front of the class to see the blackboard.
He won't have to stay indoors because he is no longer blinded by the sun hitting his cataracts.
He won't get teased for squinting.
For Danielle Josua and the rest of the Timbangs, life is looking up.
Topics: health, adolescent-health, eyes, diseases-and-disorders, human-interest, community-and-society, philippines