NEWS > Appeals and Stories > Rescuing people from River Blindness this Christmas
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Rescuing people from River Blindness this Christmas
Please help cbm end the suffering and sight loss caused by River Blindness.
Every Christmas I find myself writing about the River Blindness parasite. These tiny worms cause such intense suffering, Jesus himself used it to describe eternal torment: “their worms do not die.” Today please do the one thing that will make their worms die. Give Mectizan tablets to those being tormented and blinded by this parasite.  Why is my Christmas appeal always about River Blindness? One reason is spiritual. The other is financial.Spiritually, River Blindness reminds me of the Christmas miracle. Humanity’s greatest hope came in the tiniest form – the baby Jesus. Likewise, the answer to the inhumane suffering of River Blindness is also tiny. Two small tablets of Mectizan provide complete protection from the parasite for an entire year. Financially, the Christmas season of giving is hard on budgets – but River Blindness is so cheap to prevent. Mectizan tablets are donated by their makers and it costs just 50c per person to distribute them. Dollar for dollar this is the best gift you can send to end human misery. When people lack Mectizan, they uproot their whole lives to flee from the biting flies that spread the parasites. This happened to Abdullahi, young chief of Nigeria’s Jambri village. “Everyone was infected,” he told us. “You saw people itching, scratching their bodies. I felt terrible for them and for my village.” One of them was Kelladi, Abdullahi’s mother-in-law. With no Mectizan she said her life was “Pain. Pain from head to toe.” The pain comes from millions of tiny worms under her skin. The irritation is unbearable. Kelladi has spent years scratching, digging and scraping for relief. Her flesh became lumpy, leathery “leopard skin”. The village plunged into catastrophic poverty. Only the children could work – staving off starvation at the expense of their schooling and futures. Abdullahi had no choice. They fled from the big muddy river that breeds the flies. Nearly 3000 souls uprooted their lives for lack to two tablets of Mectizan each.  Please don’t let tragedies like this continue. We have free tablets, but we need your gift of 50c per person to reach the remote river villages where the suffering is so great.$40 will set 80 people free for an entire year. A $50 gift protects 100 people from unimaginable suffering. Your gift of $150 will stop a whole village of 300 from losing their most important asset – their sight. Sight. That is the great urgency. Mectizan prevents suffering and ends torment. It cannot reverse blindness. The worms that invaded Kelladi’s eyes blinded her for life. Right now thousands of people are on the verge of blindness because of these worms. They need Mectizan with desperate urgency – so please donate your River Blindness gift for Christmas. Make Christmas your time to end suffering. Look what cbm supporters did for Abdullahi’s village. “The medication helped them. It reduced the itching and those we feared would go blind still have their sight.” Tidings of great joy! I wish we could have reached them before they fled from the river. Now at least their suffering is over and they can rebuild – except for those like Kelladi. Mectizan came too late to save her eyes. River Blindness is an awful subject at Christmas, but what a great gift you can give to those who are suffering and losing their sight. Please make room on your Christmas list for them today. In Jesus’ words, their words will not die until they receive those two tiny tablets and the great gift of hope in God’s name. Wishing you a blessed Christmas Darren Ward National Director PS. When I was a boy 50c could buy so much. How amazing it can still buy a year of protection from intense suffering. Please protect as many people as you can from River Blindness, by sending a generous gift for Christmas. |
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