Her talk will feature at the top of the main TED.com home page on 26 June.
Dr Harper was one of a group of experts chosen to speak at the TED conference in Vancouver in April, as she called on philanthropists to join the Audacious Project and free the world of the disease.
The Audacious Project aims to foster “collaborative philanthropy for bold ideas” by financially supporting projects that have the potential to create global change. Sightsavers’ plan to end trachoma has been selected as one of these ideas.
During her talk, Dr Harper explained how trachoma is still the world’s leading cause of infectious blindness and has a devastating impact on some of the most vulnerable people. Armed with a colourful dose pole and a pair of tweezers, she spoke about how the dose pole is used by volunteers in communities to measure the amount of medication to give people, and how the tweezers symbolise the many people who use them to pluck their eyelashes to free themselves from pain.
Dr Harper also praised the role of global collaboration in the battle to end trachoma, with ministries of health, communities, pharmaceutical companies, donors and international development organisations all working together.
TED has gained a global reputation for its free online talks, posted under the slogan ‘ideas worth spreading.’ It is named after its focus on technology, entertainment and design, but also encompasses science, business, the arts and global issues.
Watch the TED talk below and find out about our fight to eliminate the disease.
The Promise in Peril campaign culminated at the SDG summit with a declaration reaffirming commitments to achieving the global goals that explicitly references disability rights.
Dr Jalikatu Mustapha trained with Sightsavers between 2012 and 2016, becoming the only female ophthalmologist in the country.
Sightsavers’ education, research and policy teams will join the global education community at the UKFIET international education conference on 12-14 September in Oxford, UK.