Listen in and change a life
In June 2021, BBC Radio 4 listeners heard Zuwaira's incredible story. Thank you for helping us reach more people in pain, suffering from the eye disease trachoma.
£60 could pay for antibiotics for an entire village
DONATEWhen was the broadcast?
Date
Sunday 27 June 2021
Time
7:54am and 9:25pm
Station
BBC Radio 4
On 27 June 2021, actress Sunetra Sarker talked about Sightsavers’ work during the BBC Radio 4 appeal.
We are so grateful for the opportunity to have told so many people about our work. Sunetra spoke about the painful eye disease trachoma which affects thousands of people like Zuwaira, pictured above, despite medicine being readily available.
Although the appeal is over, you can still donate to Sightsavers. It takes less than three minutes to make a one-time donation or set up a monthly gift, and your kindness will help us reach more people like Zuwaira and change their lives forever.
If you’d like to listen back to the appeal, please visit the Radio 4 website.
Click below to hear Sunetra explain why she’s a Sightsavers ambassador:
About Sunetra
Sunetra Sarker is a British actress who has starred in TV series including Casualty, Ackley Bridge and The Bay. Sunetra became a Sightsavers ambassador in 2009, when she wore a blindfold for a day to highlight the plight of blind women around the world.
In February 2020, Sunetra visited a pop-up eye testing station in India that provided truck drivers with free prescription glasses.
What is trachoma?
Trachoma is the world’s leading infectious cause of blindness. It starts off as a bacterial infection that makes the eyes sore and weepy, a bit like conjunctivitis. At this stage, trachoma is easy to treat with antibiotics. But if it’s not treated, over time trachoma scars the eyelid and pulls the lashes inwards, so they scratch the cornea with every blink. This advanced form of trachoma can be agony. Many sufferers pull out their eyelashes with tweezers for temporary relief from the pain.
Without surgery, advanced trachoma can ultimately lead to blindness.
Help end the agony of trachoma
DONATEZuwaira's story
Zuwaira, a mother of six from Nigeria, suffered the agony of trachoma for 27 years. Her eyes were itchy and swollen. The pain made it so hard to go out in sunlight that Zuwaira had to give up her baking business and do her chores at night.
A Sightsavers volunteer performing door-to-door health checks diagnosed Zuwaira with trichiasis, the most severe form of trachoma that could have led to blindness. Our team arranged for Zuwaira to meet an eye surgeon and undergo an operation to stop the agony and save her sight.
Zuwaira’s is one of the many lives transformed by work to stop this terrible disease. You can play a part in history and help eliminate trachoma – your donation to Sightsavers can help us distribute medicine to the communities most at risk.
You can find out more about Zuwaira in our Summer appeal.
Statistics: World Health Organization (Stats 1 and 2, Stat 3)
Photographs of Zuwaira: © Sightsavers/Cliqq Productions
Learn more about our work
About Sightsavers
Since 1950, Sightsavers has worked to protect sight and improve the lives of people with disabilities. Our vision is of a world where avoidable blindness is eliminated, and where people with disabilities have the same rights as everyone else.
How we’re run
91% of donations, including donated medical supplies, go to our vital charity work, and 9% help us to grow our awareness and funding. We aim to be as transparent as possible so you can be sure your money is used wisely.
Where we work
Our work to protect sight focuses on 30 low and middle income countries in Africa and Asia. We carry out millions of eye health examinations and distribute tens of millions of treatments every year.
You can help change lives
