I miss the light

“I miss the light”
Nkasis, Trachoma sufferer from the Horn of Africa

“I went and washed, and then I could see.”
John 9:11


Nkasis dares not open her eyes.  Every blink is agony because of the world’s most virulent and painful form of preventable sight loss. 

She is being blinded by trachoma, like the 8 million people whose sight has been forever stolen by this terrible disease.

We have made huge strides against trachoma, but it is roaring back with a vengeance on the famine-stricken Horn of Africa, where Nkasis lives. 

This resurgence makes our plea to you especially urgent.  Please donate here to help the poorest of trachoma sufferers.

cbm donors have done an incredible job of supporting our SAFE strategy to reduce trachoma.  Surgery, Antibiotics, promoting Face-washing and Environmental factors such as providing clean water and sanitation.

Now with Africa’s famine and drought trachoma is on the rise again.  Dusty faces attract flies, which deposit the trachoma bacteria—on children most of all.

First your eyes become runny.  Then scars bubble up under your eyelids.  Nkasis said “it felt like rocks under my eyelids.” 

These bumpy scars force your eyelashes to turn inwards, cutting away at your corneas with every blink.

These tiny cuts become opaque scratches, so your eyesight gradually fades away.  Forever. Trachoma blindness cannot be reversed.

We have made such great gains against trachoma.  Please don’t let them be lost in the dust and flies of this tragic famine.

Donate today.  What part of the SAFE strategy will you support?

S – your gift of $30 towards Surgery means someone like Nkasis can have an operation to rotate her eyelashes out of harm’s way.

A – Antibiotics, such as tetracycline.  With a gift of $50 you can give ten infected families the medication they need.

F – your gift of $100 will allow our field workers to spend a week visiting isolated communities teaching the most simple and effective protection against diseases like trachoma – Face-washing. 

E – Environmental improvement.  Your gift of $250 for latrines, wells and cattle pens can help keep a whole village safe from trachoma.

Your gift is needed urgently to turn back the rising tide of trachoma on the Horn of Africa.  So much ground has been gained.  Please don’t let it be lost. 

Please donate today to keep the world’s poorest people SAFE from trachoma.