Mali
Our work in Mali focuses on fighting and preventing diseases such as river blindness, and treating eye conditions such as cataracts.
Debilitating diseases such as river blindness are a major public health problem in Mali.
It’s thought that five million people need medication to protect them against river blindness, and more than 15 million people are at risk of lymphatic filariasis.
Sightsavers has been working in Mali since 1991, and is fighting these diseases by distributing medication that can prevent them spreading.
We’re also working to reduce blindness in Mali by training eye specialists and health workers, and recruiting community volunteers to distribute medication. We educate communities about good hygiene, carry out surgery for patients suffering from cataracts and trachoma, and screen people for refractive error.
Sightsavers’ social inclusion work in Mali aims to empower who are visually impaired, enabling them to participate in their community. We provide support to help children with visual impairments to go to school, offer eye health consultations and monitor the progress of each child that is enrolled.
At a glance
Total populationWhat we focus on
Key programmes
How we’re making a difference in Mali
Fighting disease
Sightsavers mobile surgeon Boubacar Fomba travels to rural Mali to treat patients in the field and gather vital data about trachoma.
Read Boubacar’s story
Inclusive education
Eleven-year-old Mafoune has low vision and used to struggle at school. But thanks to our inclusive education project, she now excels in class.
Read Mafoune’s story
Restoring vision
Sayon suffered for years with trachoma, and risked going blind. After a straightforward operation, she is now free from this painful disease.
Read Sayon’s story
Your donation could help to protect sight
DONATEMore from west Africa
September highlights: updates from around the world
News from Zambia, where Sightsavers helped Felix to gain his ophthalmology diploma. Plus news from Guinea, Togo and more.
Sierra Leone Eye Care Programme
More than 90 per cent of all blindness in Sierra Leone is also avoidable, significantly higher than the global average. This project aims to help reduce avoidable blindness and vision impairment.
“We’ve learned to treat all children equally”
Sightsavers' Kate McCoy travelled to northern Sierra Leone to visit a school where teachers are being specially trained to support children with disabilities.
Mariam’s story
Mariam is a Sightsavers trained community directed distributor, who loves her job. She gets to help protect people in her village from the threat of river blindness.
May highlights: updates from around the world
News from Mali, where a new initiative is helping children with visual impairments to go to school. Plus updates from Guinea, Sierra Leone, Senegal and Cameroon.
April highlights: updates from around the world
An update from Nigeria, where Sightsavers has donated new motorbikes to a group of NTD workers. Plus news from Guinea, Cameroon and Mozambique.
Meeting Sierra Leone’s miracle workers
A group of Sightsavers staff travelled to Makeni Hospital in Sierra Leone to meet the amazing eye care workers your donations are helping to support.
A brighter future for people with disabilities
With your help, we’re working hard to ensure people with disabilities have the same chances in life as everyone else, to earn, learn and be happy.
January highlights: updates from around the world
A round-up from the field, including news from the CATCH programme in Uganda and Kenya, plus updates from India and Burkina Faso.
Sayon’s story
Sayon suffered for many years with trachoma, which caused her eyelashes to scratch against her eyes. Thanks to surgery, she is now free from this painful disease.
Mafoune’s story
Eleven-year-old Mafoune has low vision. She is happy and confident, but she wasn’t always like this: an inclusive education project for children with disabilities has made all the difference.
Children with disabilities in Sierra Leone given the chance to go to school
The Education for All project will focus on girls with disabilities, who are often excluded because of prejudice or a lack of funding.
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Where we work