The ‘mysterious’ Awuku family: Every male child goes blind at six, and female at ten

Awuku Family’s saga is truly extraordinary: a tale of four robust brothers who inexplicably lost their vision right after their sixth birthdays.

This family of six, which includes four men and their father, now faces the profound challenge of blindness. The father, who survived a gunshot wound to one eye, manages with only partial vision.

David Awuku, the eldest brother, recounted their harrowing experience during an interview with Kofi TV. He described how he and his siblings were struck by the loss of their sight under mysterious and unsettling circumstances.

“In 2017, my father got shot in one of his eyes. My mother, who was taking care of the home at that time too, passed away. We weren’t born blind. We were all able to see perfectly well until we turned 6 years old,” he disclosed.

Emmanuel, one of the brothers, gave a detailed account of how their father, who was the breadwinner of the home, got shot.

“Our parents were the ones taking care of us because we were very incapable. They used to burn and sell charcoal. One evening, at around 8 pm, they went to check on a batch of charcoal they were burning, and we waited for them to return, but to no avail. We waited till morning, and there was still no trace of them.”

Narrating further, he said, “We decided to go to the farm to check what happened to them, and on our way, we met a certain man who asked us to return.

He told us that while my parents were burning the charcoal that evening, someone shot my father in the eye and he was rushed to the hospital. Till now, we don’t have the slightest idea of who shot our dad.

“Now he is getting weaker by the day, His energy level has dropped, although he keeps going to work. He isn’t as strong as before. We went from hospital to hospital, yet the doctors couldn’t tell what exactly was wrong with our sight.”

They also recounted an interesting moment when they went for checks at the Okomfo Anokye Teaching Hospital and the specialist informed them that their eyes were far healthier than his.

“There was this instance when we went to the Okomfo Anokye Teaching Hospital for checks, and after a thorough check of our situation, the specialist who attended to us told us that we had healthier eyes than him. He detected that our eyes were more perfect than his.

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“He also said he wouldn’t be able to prescribe any drugs for us because there was nothing wrong with our sight,” Joshua said.

Expressing his sentiments about their condition, Joshua added,

“It’s sad when our friends are going to work to cater for their families, and we can’t do much to support ours. Even what to eat is a problem sometimes.

Asked if they have tried different approaches to ascertaining the cause of their plight, including resorting to shrines, the eldest son said, “It’s something we have been considering, but we haven’t taken a step yet.”

In addition to the four blind brothers, their youngest sibling, Blessing, also lost her vision after turning 10.

Blessing shared that before becoming fully blind, she had been able to see from morning until 6 p.m.

She is now a student at the Bechem School for the Deaf and Blind.

Source: tigpost.co