Our work in Benin
In Benin, we focus on treating and preventing five neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). For example, in 2020 we helped support 94 surgeries for advanced trachoma.
Sightsavers is working to protect more than 500,000 people in Benin from avoidable blindness by eliminating trachoma.
Trachoma, the world’s leading infectious cause of blindness, is endemic in Benin. Thanks to the support of our Accelerate programme, we are working to protect communities by supporting surgeries for trachoma trichiasis, the advanced stage of trachoma, as well as treatment through mass drug administration.
Thanks to the UK aid’s flagship NTD programme, Ascend West and Central Africa, as a consortium, Sightsavers along with the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM), Mott Macdonald, and the SCI Foundation, is supporting ministries to protect communities in Benin from lymphatic filariasis.
At a glance
Total populationWhat we focus on
Key programmes
Previous programmes
How we’re making a difference in Benin
In Benin, Sightsavers is using digital technology to help eliminate neglected tropical diseases. Sightsavers' TT Tracker app enables our workers to collect and analyse patient data at the touch of a button.
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Sightsavers’ Gertrude Oforiwa Fefoame re-elected to UN disability committee
Gertrude, who was nominated by the government of Ghana, was elected alongside five other women and will serve on the committee until 2026.
Salifat’s story
Salifat experienced painful swelling in her leg for a year before she was visited by a local health worker, who told her she had lymphatic filariasis and taught her to manage her symptoms.
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Seeing clearly: five sight-saving stories in Benin
The Accelerate programme, supported by Sightsavers, aims to stop people going blind from trachoma. In Benin, five patients reveal how the programme has changed their lives.
‘Prevention is better than cure’: How social behaviour change prevents glaucoma blindness
The Keep Sight initiative shares its findings on how social behaviour change could address the problem of people losing their sight because of glaucoma.
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