It’s thought that five million people need medication to protect them against river blindness.
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.
Sightsavers’ Boubacar Morou Dicko shares the obstacles Mali faced on the road to eliminating trachoma, and how the country was able to overcome them.
Both countries’ achievements have been validated by the World Health Organization, meaning they join a growing list of countries to have banished the disease.
Since 1991, Sightsavers been helping Mali’s ministry of health to treat and prevent this blinding disease. Now the country is on track to banish it for good.
Schools in Kenya, Ethiopia and Guinea are using educational board games to teach children about the importance of good hygiene to help eliminate trachoma.
Saio has a physical disability that affects her feet and makes walking difficult, meaning she was missing out on a lot of her education. A Sightsavers-supported inclusive education project has provided transport to take her to school and training for her teachers, which has made a huge difference.
Meet Dr Jalikatu, who’s the only female ophthalmologist in Sierra Leone and the head of the national eye care programme.