The end is in sight for trachoma
We’re on a mission to end trachoma by 2025, and with your support, we can make history.
The End is in Sight is our fundraising campaign to eliminate one of the world’s oldest diseases. We know where it is, and how to treat it. Now we need your help to banish it for good.
Together, we can end the agony of trachoma.
An excruciating disease
Imagine if every time you blinked, your eyelashes scraped agonisingly on your eyeballs until you went blind. That’s the reality for millions of people who have trachoma.
What we’re doing
This infectious eye disease thrives in areas with water shortages, poor sanitation and infestations of flies.
But it can be treated and prevented with antibiotics and good hygiene.
Help us make history
We’ve spent years treating people for the disease, and we’ve already beaten it in Ghana. We aim to eliminate it for good by 2025. But we need your help: find out how below.
Support our mission to end the agony of trachoma
DONATEHow can I get involved?
Make a donation
Your gift can help us distribute antibiotics to banish trachoma for good by 2025, saving millions of people from the threat of blindness. Help us make history: donate now
Fundraise with us
There are so many ways you can help, from organising a coffee morning to running a marathon, trekking up Kilimanjaro or even skydiving. Get started with fundraising
We can’t do it without your help
We must act now. If we can reach a child with trachoma early and treat them with antibiotics, their sight can be completely restored.
But the longer they go without treatment, the more damage trachoma can cause. And it takes more than their sight. The agony and disability of trachoma can stop people earning a living and prevent children going to school, leaving them trapped in a cycle of poverty.
It takes their independence. Their education. Even their future.
Through years of hard work, we’ve weakened trachoma’s grip and have beaten it in countries such as Ghana. Now we have a chance to make history.
Our plan is to eliminate the disease by 2025. Will you join the fight?
What is trachoma?
More than 142 million people worldwide are at risk of going blind from the disease.
More about trachoma“The medicine saved my eyes!”
Six-year-old Namukolo, from rural Zambia, was suffering from trachoma. Without treatment, she risked going blind and spreading the infection to her twin brother. But thanks to Sightsavers, she was diagnosed and given antibiotics to treat the infection and save her sight. Read Namukolo’s story
Help end the misery of trachoma
Find out more about trachoma
“That lady who was going blind? Look at her now!”
In northern Kenya, Sightsavers’ Sarah Filbey visits an eye camp that treats both trachoma and cataracts, ensuring everyone gets the life-changing help they need.
“I want to be able to dance again”
Sightsavers’ Katya Mira witnessed the first round of eye operations in Benin to treat blinding trachoma, and saw three women’s lives transformed.
Mercia’s story
Mercia, from Mozambique, has worked at Sightsavers for nine years, and is determined to make sure everyone can get good-quality eye care.
New health programme will protect 200 million people from disease
The Ascend programme, which Sightsavers is leading, aims to tackle six of the world’s worst diseases in 25 countries.
BBC Africa films first trachoma operations in Benin
A team from ‘La Vie’, BBC Africa’s French-language health programme, followed the story of two women from Benin as they had surgery for blinding trachoma.
Nearly 300,000 people given medication in Egypt during first mass trachoma campaign
Antibiotics were distributed in the Menia region of northern Egypt, where nearly 10 per cent of children aged one to nine had symptoms of the disease.
Why water matters: insights from an NTD expert
To mark World Water Week, Sightsavers technical director Geordie Woods explains how water is vital to prevent disease and save sight.
Trachoma in Zambia: insights from the SAFE programme
In the past five years, the DFID SAFE trachoma programme has helped to protect and treat almost 3 million people in Zambia. Here’s what it has taught us.
With your help, we’ve reached the unreachable in Zambia
Last year, during a visit to western Zambia, we met brothers Sililo and Maimbolwa, and their sister Inutu. All were suffering from trachoma – but we were able to treat them, thanks to you.
