"Help me before I die! What wrong have I done to deserve all this? My life has been turned into a nightmare and if I don’t get urgent assistance, something bad will happen to me in the near future."

This is the painful plea from an unemployed man, Mr Nndwamato Petrus Mahafha (56) of Tshakhuma-Mutsindoni, whose right eye has been bulging for the past four years. The bulging has also affected his nose and he breathes with difficulty. Mahafha says the pain is so terrible that he even thinks of dying. "I have never known peaceful sleep since I was attacked by this mysterious illness four years ago. The eye keeps on discharging fluids and it keeps of bulging on a daily basis. How much more must I suffer before a Good Samaritan comes to my rescue?" cried Mahafha, who has a wife and seven kids who are all still at school.

Mahafha says his troubles started in 2002 and he thought it was a minor thing. "I developed a small pimple which was aching, but I never took it seriously. The pain got worse and the pimple grew into a lump that never stopped aching. I then went to the local clinic and they transferred me to Elim Hospital and thereafter, I ended up in Mankweng Hospital. Doctors said there was fluid in my eye and they started draining it. Since then, the fluids have never stopped coming out and they have drained it more than five times during different consultations. One doctor told me that I need specialist treatment in Gauteng, but I must be prepared to pay. I don’t have any money as I am unemployed. My family depends on child support grants, which is too little to also cover my medical needs."

Mahafha says he has also consulted traditional healers, men of the cloth and fortune tellers, but he has never received assistance. "I am tired of living in slavery and I request community members out there to help me. I cannot work for my family because of the unbearable pain. Please, help me because I want to enjoy life like anyone else created by God," he sobbed.

[Edited]