“They will tell you no. Let them be. They don’t want someone from their family to be stigmatised … they don’t want to traumatise them,” said Dr Kuol.
Dr Kuol has dedicated her life to transforming the eyesight of her people, but she is no stranger to sacrifice. Just three years old when the bloody Second Sudanese War broke out, she lost her brother in the conflict and her family were forced to flee to Khartoum and Renk.
Despite her displacement, Dr Kuol undertook a medical degree in Khartoum where she met her husband, a gynaecologist, later having five children together. In 2014, she won a scholarship from the Christian Blind Mission to train as an eye surgeon at the University of Nairobi, in Kenya.
Dr Kuol decided to return to South Sudan in 2020 to serve her own people but left behind her family in Nairobi. She now wakes at 4am every day to video call her children before they head off for school.
“I’ve always felt like I should go home to help my community and open eyes for other people to be able to also enjoy their life,” she said. “I want to encourage young women to get their education, not to just get married … that is my legacy I will leave behind.”
*Mary’s name was changed for this story
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