To see those kind people who helped me to defeat blindness, and in particular, the dearest person in the world – my wife Anna.

       Just one absurd mistake broke the life of a wonderful person - Valeriy Romoev, an orphan guy, who was raised by a Yezidi woman from Tbilisi. 

He is an electrician, and he took off his safety goggles just for a second, while working on the machine. As a result, he got almost blind. A blind and unemployed citizen of Georgia. 

- Valeriy, what kind of problem made you address to our Fund? 

- My problem is a fear to find myself in complete darkness for the rest of my life. I am getting blind and it is terrible! I can’t see the daylight, the sun, flowers. I can’t see the face of my beloved wife. 

Now, when I have got almost blind, I know for sure, that when you cannot see this beautiful world that God gave us (he crossed himself) it is not just terrible. It is a greatest tragedy. Life without colors of sunrise and sunset, evening twilights, and the face of your love – cannot be called life. 

Damned cataract makes my eyes black!

My wife Anna and me we are both orphans adopted from the very early childhood by kind Georgians. I, for instance, was born in Murmansk, but I don’t know my roots. Anna was an orphan too - her mother died when she was 1. That’s why it so important for me to see Anna! 

We have no children. It must be God’s will. We were eager to have children - alas! I’d rather not speak about it. I don’t want my wife to feel this pain again. Whatever happens, it is God’s will.

My illness deprived me of the happiness to see my wife. It threatens to steal everything: my work and a chance to earn some money, my hope for tomorrow, and my self-confidence. I feel myself disabled. 

The danger is everywhere! Not long ago I was crossing the street. I felt awkward to ask strangers to help me. And suddenly a car came out! It hit my feet twice! Thank God it did not kill me!

       - Valeriy, how did it happen?  When did the problems with your eyes start?

- I am an electrician, I always worked either at big construction sites, or in some organizations. I also used to have some side work, private callouts. 

        Once, more than two years ago, I was working at a big construction project. I had been working on the machine for many hours, cutting out metal spare parts - we call them patterns. 

Due to hours of work my safety goggles were fogging up, and I kept taking them off, cleaning, and putting on again. Once I just forgot to put them on and all the metal shavings and dust flew straight into my eyes. 

I immediately went to the doctor, he washed my eyes, but after this accident my vision started decreasing dramatically. 

I could not afford myself to retire, because I had to keep myself and my wife. I continued working, but despite all the efforts to protect my eyes, my vision went almost to zero. 

So that my left eye became completely blind, and my right eye had only 5% of vision. 

My first medical certificate said: “The left eye is blind, the right eye’s vision is 5%. An urgent operation is required.” 

        - As far as I know, you have had only your left eye operated on. Why not both?

- It all came down to finances. I did not have the means even for the first operation. I am not used to asking or borrowing money. If it were not for my wife, I would have remained blind forever. 

It was Anna, who addressed you, the Chernovetskyi Fund, after she by chance saw your publications on the Internet. It was she, who found the money for the first operation. Anna is my guardian angel! 

So, my good friend Oleg Ogonyan lent me the money for the first operation. He is already a pensioner - he is 71 years old, he does not work, and lives on his pension. But he had some savings and he lent me the money. As I said before, he is in retirement, and had been taking care of his old mother who died in March, this year at the age of 94. 

I did not want to borrow from him, I told him: I will manage somehow, and you are a pensioner, you have an old mother to take care of. But he insisted. That's what we call a true Friend! 

We are still due to him, unable to give him his money back. Hopefully, the second operation will fix my vision and I will be able to resume work and give him all his money back.

By the way, my wife Anna helped Oleg to take care of his mother before she died. She said she wanted to return the favor to Oleg, so she helped him to take care of his mother till her last day. 

- How successful was the first operation? Did it improve your vision?

- The operation was successful. My completely blind eye started to see a little bit again. Actually, I was able to read, not too much, without overstraining the eye.

But how could I sit at home? Without working, without earning money? You know, “the dog that trots about finds a bone”. I had to work anyway. I was not contracted officially because of my eyes, but I had some side jobs.

However, very soon, due to the fact that the right eye saw only 5% and all the stress went to the operated left one, the vision in it again began to deteriorate catastrophically. I got almost blind again. 

I needed to be operated urgently for the second time. 

        - You addressed our Fund asking for help with your second operation. Did you address state authorities? 

-The state gave me 100 GEL for the first operation. My wife and me appealed to all relevant bodies, but all we got was just those 100 GEL. I am not sure, if it was insurance or social allowance from the Ministry of Health. I am still amazed at this amount ... 

You know, I did not walk around to seek for clarifications. Not because I did not want to bother myself, it was because I was physically unable to. I can’t see, it is so difficult for me to visit all those bodies, to wait for the appointment with the officials. My wife cannot do it for me, because it’s required that the applicant should come personally.

My right eye should be operated urgently, a feel I am at my limit, tomorrow or the day after tomorrow my eyes will close and I will not be able to see anything at all. I will get blind forever.

- What does the doctor say? Will the second operation help you to avoid blindness?

- The doctor says that the prognosis is good and that I will almost completely restore my vision. And I believe that! 

I will only have to wait one month till the focus reestablishes, and my both eyes get coordinated. Then I will be able to work again, I will be back to normal life.

God will not leave his son, because he said: "See again! Your faith has made you well." I have faith, I believe.

- You are so much in love! Tell me more about her, about Anna

- She’s my treasure, my support in everything. She is a hard worker. Our home shines with cleanliness, Anna never lets me in before I take off my shoes, saying: No, no, please take your shoes off. (laughs) 

I can’t live without her! When I got blind and nobody in Tbilisi hired me, she took a risk and we went together to Hopa,Turkey, to work at the tea plantation. I worked together with her removing weeds, working from 5 AM till 6 PM. There were lots of mosquitoes and poisonous snakes there, it was quite scary.

I was not a very good assistant to my wife doing this work - one cannot see much with one blind eye and the other almost blind. But I could not let her go there alone! It was because of me that she found herself in such a situation. My Sugar, my girl! 

- Valeriy, you said you were an orphan adopted in Tbilisi. Can you tell me a couple of words about that?

- My sister Karina and I were adopted right from the maternity hospital by a very kind woman, Rosa Dmitrievna Romoeva, may she rest in peace. She took the secret of our birth to the grave, she didn’t tell us anything ... We discovered quite by chance that she was not our biological mother: somehow, we found our birth certificates! From the certificates we learnt that we were born in Murmansk.

Karinochka, may she rest in peace, died of cancer in 2006.  She suffered a lot! It seems our biological parents made too many sins! So, I would have been left completely alone in the whole world, if not my love, my Anna! And she would have been alone as well. Two orphans. God made us meet each other. Otherwise, life it would not be life! 

- What a sad story, what a hard life... 

Now, let’s talk about today again. Because of the cataract and almost blindness you cannot work. Maybe you need some other help besides the operation? What are the living conditions of your small family? 

 - If you help me with the operation so that I have my vision back, I will need nothing else. I want to and I will manage to stand up on my feet and do it on my own. 

I need to see in order to work and cross this bridge over the chasm, I’d rather not use this word, but still – a chasm between poverty and an opportunity to earn a living and keep our family of two! 

- Do you have your own home, a roof over your head?

- Unfortunately, no. We are renting two rooms in a private house. I had a house my mother Roza left to me. Several years ago, I decided to make renovation there, took a bank loan for that. But it happened so that I did not manage to pay the interest and lost the house. 

Now we live in a rented one. Let's not talk about it anymore. I will deal with that, I don’t want to bother anybody with unnecessary information.

       - OK. Then tell me about your family. Introduce your beloved Anna to us. 

- The story is very common, my future wife and I met in Tbilisi, fell in love, started a family and lived in perfect harmony for 8 years. We have gone through everything over years, both good and bad.  She is a very good person, I never call her by name, I call her Sugar! 

She does everything for me, for the family. She’s my friend, my sister, my wife. 

- May God grant you happiness and many years, Valeriy and Anna! You deserve that! 

If the operation goes well and your eyesight returns, would you like to see, at least in a photo or live, those who have helped you?

- Whether I would I like to? - I would beg you to introduce us if it were possible! No one will be dearer for us than those who have helped me to return to normal life! With all my heart, am I eager see your readers who might have given their last lari to help me, to make me see again!

If I have this chance, I will hug them all and thank them, saying: Thank you! You have saved me! You brought me back to my usual life, you gave me a chance to stand on my feet! You made me feel a man again! 

As soon as we met Valeriy, we took him to hospital. The doctor said he could see again! There is God on Earth and in Heaven!

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We thought it was unacceptable to leave this courageous man in complete darkness. We want Georgia to show him how generous those who once sheltered him and Anna are! It is so important to know, that there are good people in our sunny country. Life becomes less scary and a hope for a miracle appears! 

Friends let me invite you to participate in this miracle. Imagine that Valeriy Romoev will see again, will have a chance to be happy and to be back to normal life -  to work, to love and live a happy life with his dear family! He needs to be operated on, and he needs to go through rehabilitation. 

Call Valeriy, cheer him up and make him feel better. Phone: 593 74 94 97 or visit him, he will be glad to meet the new friends. His address is: Tbilisi 17 Beri Gabrieli Salosi second turn

        Please repost our publication. Let your friends know about the grief of Valeriy Romoev! It’s extremely important!

       God gives us chances to care about people who are unable to take care of themselves. Those poor people are sent to us by heaven so that we could prove not by words, but in deeds that we trust in God!

Friends, there is one more request - if you know about misfortunes of a neighbor or friend, do a godly deed, drop us an email at:  office-fsp@fsp.ge 

Our Fund’s accounts are 

GE15TB7194336080100003

GE42LB0115113036665000

GE64BG0000000470458000

(purpose: Valeryi Romoev). 

You can also transfer money from our website.

It is also possible to transfer money from Nova Technology, TBCpay and ExpressPay terminals. Find our Fund under "Charity" section. (You can read more about rights and responsibilities of the Fund following the link https://goo.gl/GY2Gus )

We have already helped many disadvantaged people! Let’s support Valeriy Romoev, as no one is immune to bad luck! 

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