Abdullah Abu Al-Samh Okaz newspaper It is a great shame that our rich society, which donates tens of millions of riyals as diyyah (blood money) to rescue a murderer from the sword, refuses to extend nominal financial assistance to save people from total blindness. Our society is not willing to pay the cost of an ophthalmologic operation, which by the way is not a lot of money, to save men, women and children from losing their eyesight. Such heartlessness is not only painful but regrettable as well. The Okaz daily recently published a report that said due to lack of resources, Ebsar Foundation, a charity organization helping the visually impaired people regain their eyesight, was forced to stop its program aimed at combating blindness. The secretary general of the organization, Mohammed Tawfeeq Bellow, said the organization had to stop its program because it was unable to pay outstanding dues to a number of eye hospitals. This humanitarian society was unable to admit many people threatened with blindness to hospitals to save them before it was too late just because it did not have the financial resources to bear the costs of the operations. Imagine that they are short of an amount that does not exceed SR2.6 million and is enough to save about 600 people from losing their sight. This is the price of a handful of luxury cars. Where are the people with charitable hearts? How many eyes could be saved by the inflated blood money being demanded in other cases? The exorbitant amounts called for by families of murder victims have become more of a lucrative source of revenue than an Islamic act of justice. Please read this shameful news and donate to this organization. You can contact Okaz for the address of Ebsar Foundation. I also request the newspaper to launch a small campaign to raise funds for this charitable organization. You, the wealthy, please donate generously to Ebsar to continue its program aimed at protecting people against certain kinds of blindness. According to the foundation, the cost of a successful eye operation in most cases is only SR5,000.
