NEWS > Appeals and Stories > Angels with Dirty Faces
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Angels with Dirty FacesSave the eyes of children like lucky from Trachoma blindness In Malawi, a little girl of four kissed her baby brother on the cheek. That kiss nearly blinded baby Lucky for life, in one of the most painful ways I can imagine.Lucky was just four months old when our cbm community workers found him, but already he was developing Trachoma. Left untreated, this terrible bacterial illness will blind Lucky for life. The bacteria will infect his eyes, causing his eyelids to turn inwards. Lucky’s own eyelashes will start scraping at his eyes. Have you ever scratched your eye? I hope not, but try to imagine the excruciating pain of a hundred little cuts every time you blink. Like scratches on eyeglasses, Lucky’s eyes will be too damaged for him to see. Around the world, around eight million people have been blinded by Trachoma, and their loss of sight cannot be reversed.  Lucky is just a baby, he cannot save himself from Trachoma. Nor can his family, who are too poor to afford treatment. Even though Trachoma is all around them, they have no idea why it happens.That is why you are so important to those like Lucky. You can afford to save people from Trachoma. You can help us teach communities like Lucky’s how to protect themselves from this awful disease. For Lucky, it started with a kiss... ...a kiss from his sister who was already infected with the Trachoma bacteria. She is a little angel, with a dirty face. Flies carrying Trachoma find dirty faces irresistible, which is why you often see pictures of children covered in flies. With a dirty face, it wasn’t long until Lucky’s sister had Trachoma, and then passed it on to her baby brother with a kiss. Children like Lucky can be saved from the suffering of Trachoma by something as simple as a facecloth.  Yes! It is really that simple. Yet in villages like Lucky’s, water is so scarce that there is no tradition of face washing. That is why your gift today has so much power to save someone like Lucky from endless suffering and lifelong irreversible blindness.The ointment that quickly and simply eradicates the germs is called Tetracycline and your gift of $20 will clear up Trachoma in up to four whole families. Isn’t that so simple and cheap? Yet families like Lucky’s cannot afford Tetracycline themselves. You are their only hope. If Lucky’s Trachoma becomes badly advanced, his eyelids will turn in on themselves and scrape his eyes. Your gift of $40 can support vital surgery to turn the scarred eyelids back to normal.  A donation of $50 will help us run the cbm screening and medical outreach camps that found Lucky. Without this, Lucky faced a lifetime of blindness.A gift of $85 will enable us to send cbm workers out to spread the good news about personal hygiene and its effects in protecting against Trachoma. There are so many ways to help the angels with dirty faces like Lucky. God loves them so much and Jesus said, “Whoever welcomes this child in my name welcomes me.” So please do what you can to help them today. Thank you. May God bless you as you bless those suffering from Trachoma. PS. Time is critical, because the blindness of Trachoma cannot be reversed. Help us find and treat Trachoma sufferers like Lucky, by donating today. Click here to donate. |
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