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 campaign to eliminate one of the world’s oldest diseases. We know where it is, and we know 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 to prevent the disease reoccurring. We’ve already beaten it in Ghana. Our aim is to eliminate it for good by 2025. But we need your help.
The disease can be traced as far back as the Ice Age
Read the history of trachomaHow can I get involved?
Make a donation
Any gift you give can help us distribute antibiotics to banish trachoma for good by 2025, saving millions of adults and children 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 or birthday collection 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 157 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
Find out more about trachoma
Sightsavers to host ‘Build a tippy tap’ challenge at the Science Museum
Sightsavers will join the free Science Museum Lates event on 29 May 2019, where visitors will have the chance to build a home-made tap against the clock.
Meeting Kenya’s health heroes
Sightsavers’ Julie Jenner meets the teachers and students who are fighting disease and preventing blindness by teaching children about good hygiene.
Trachoma elimination moves closer, a year after groundbreaking TED talk
In the year since Sightsavers' CEO gave a TED Talk about plans to eliminate trachoma, the continued fight to eliminate the disease moves closer.
Learning to adapt: what the UNITED programme has taught us
The UNITED programme has now come to an end, and has taught us numerous lessons that will inform future integrated neglected tropical disease programmes.
Reaching Ruangwa: an epic journey to help save sight
Sightsavers’ Jo Howard travels across rural Tanzania with an eye health team to see how far they must go to treat trachoma in the most remote communities.
Spring appeal
Forgotten, isolated and devastated by blinding trachoma. Will you help save the sight of a family like Bibie’s?
Ghana waves goodbye to trachoma
In June 2018 Ghana officially became trachoma-free, showing how your kind donations make a real difference.
Eliminating trachoma in Tanzania
With your support, we're determined to eliminate trachoma in Tanzania by 2020, saving sight and transforming lives.
Namakau’s story
Namakau, from Zambia, has had trachoma for decades and is now irreversibly blind. A fear of modern medicine had stopped her from seeking treatment.
