Some time ago, The New York Times ran a touching story on Charity Danso, a young African woman whose efforts to cure malaria fever she contracted left her blind. Her story, ever since, has been an intriguing tale of a strong will to overcome the obstacles life has thrown her way.
Charity was recently in Germany, and Lifted Magazine’s Associate Editor, Priscilla Gyamfi, met with her and reported on the meeting.
Ms. Charity Danso’s plights began this way. She had malaria fever like she did several times before, this time in the spring of 2007 in Kumasi, her native city in Ghana, West Africa. To fight the fever, doctors there administered a new drug, and she reacted badly to the medication, developing severe bruises and sores on her body. Soon, her fingernails fell out. She contracted a devastating illness called Stevens-Johnson syndrome and fell into a coma for two months. Thereafter, her vision was impaired.
“I realized I couldn’t see properly,” Ms. Danso, now 47, revealed to the New York Times. “I couldn’t figure out faces unless I knew.” Ms. Danso’s vision continued to deteriorate. Her relatives came to her aid by pooling their resources together to help her undergo medical treatment in the United States, where she had a series of surgeries and a corneal transplant.
After the treatment, her vision improved, “The next day, I started seeing something for the first time in eight years.” She recounted. But this was short-lived. A severe infection, followed by several unsuccessful procedures, left her blind, the New York Times reported, forcing her to accept a life in which every task is exponentially more. Before her plight, Ms. Danso worked as a customer service representative for a utility company in Ghana.
In New York, where she resides, she has assembled the pieces of her life. She finds herself yearning for a new career. She would like to become a social worker to assist others who are visually impaired.
“For somebody like me, who was seeing for 36 years and then all of a sudden, you lose your sight, you may think that your world has come to an end,” she said. “But you still have life, and if you have life, you have everything. I’m happy because I’ve been able to come out with something good. And I’m pressing forward to reach higher.”
In Darkness, She Found Light in her journey through blindness and belief. Ms Danso never imagined her life would change in a matter of weeks. At 37, she was a woman on the move with a growing career and a single mother to a lovely boy. But she woke one day after what she thought was a stubborn eye infection turned to a grey haze that soon gave way to darkness. A rare autoimmune condition had attacked her optic nerves, and despite aggressive treatment, she was declared legally blind.
The Fall: At first, everything unravelled. Ms Danso feared she couldn’t care for her son. Basic tasks felt insurmountable. “I stopped praying,” she admits. “I felt abandoned. My world had gone black, and I didn’t see the point of asking God for light. Still, something deeper stirred in her—perhaps it was the soft sound of her youngest humming outside her door or the memory of her late grandmother, who often whispered, “Even in darkness, God sees you.”
The Climb: Faith didn’t make the journey easy. But it made it possible.
“I realized I wasn’t being punished. I was being rebuilt,” Ms. Danso says. She enrolled in a rehabilitation program for the visually impaired, where she learned to read Braille, use mobility tools, and master voice-assistive technology.
Catholic Charities has also helped Ms. Danso adapt to her new apartment, which she recently moved into. It is the first time since losing her vision that Ms Danso has lived without an adult relative or friend to care for her. Staff members placed 3-D dots on the microwave and taught her how to use adaptive kitchen tools, like a device that beeps when the liquid reaches the top of a container. The Catholic Guild for the Blind also provided Ms. Danso with a watch that speaks the time, a crucial tool for her.
“It was humbling. I had to relearn everything I thought I’d mastered. But every little win felt holy—like God was reminding me, You are not broken.”
She began journaling each step, turning scripture into affirmations:
• “I walk by faith, not by sight.” (2 Corinthians 5:7)
• “God is within her, she will not fall.” (Psalm 46:5)
Ms Danso even taped verses in Braille on her kitchen counter and cane. “Faith wasn’t a feeling—it was a decision I had to make every
morning.” She says.
Rebuilding Her Life. The kitchen, once her sanctuary, became her battlefield. Burnt fingers, broken eggs, spilt flour—it was chaotic. But with time and perseverance, her hands learned to see. She refined her methods using texture, scent, and sound. Eventually, she began cooking for family and friends again. Ms. Danso has, through faith, mastered the ability to live and do everything through Christ, who strengthens her.
Her story spread across the community. Journalists wrote about her resilience; she has since been mentoring students and speaking at churches and empowerment workshops. “God didn’t restore my sight. He gave me new eyes—of the soul, of strength, of service.”
Running the Race. In 2024, Ms Danso earned a college degree in social work. “I cried at the finish line,” she recalls. “Not because I made it—but because I remembered the days I didn’t want to live.” Running became a metaphor for her journey: one step at a time, guided by faith.
Ms. Danso is a hymn of survival, grit, and grace. She may live in physical darkness, but her story shines with an undeniable light. Through loss, she found love. Through blindness, she discovered vision. And through pain, she gave birth to purpose.
“Faith,” Ms. Danso says with a quiet smile, “is not seeing the path—it’s knowing it exists, even in the dark.”