The impact of river blindness is felt by the whole community

The impact of river blindness is felt not only by the person living with the disease, but the whole community. Children miss out on education because they need to stay at home to look after their older relatives, while entire villages flee the most fertile land for fear of losing their sight.

Vera, a softly spoken woman in her early twenties, who lives less than a mile away from Juliana, tells me that her own grandmother’s river blindness robbed the whole family of their economic security – and, she feels, her future. Vera was doing exceptionally well at school and had hopes, one day, of becoming a journalist.

When she was told that her parents, because of her grandmother’s medical bills, could no longer pay her school fees, she was devastated. Aged thirteen Vera became a carer, expected to help her mother look after her grandmother 24/7.

Did she resent this, I asked? Yes, she tells me, she regrets the loss not just of her education, but of her dreams though she felt no bitterness to her grandmother.

“I just feel sorrow for her,” she says, looking into her grandmother’s milky eyes. “Sometimes I think of her life of permanent darkness. And what makes it harder, strangely, is the fact that she never complains, but accepts her lot with real humility.”

River blindness: an unknown and ‘unpopular’ disease

Sighstavers have been waging a war against river blindness since the 1950s, believing that it is possible to eliminate the disease by 2021, but only if Mectizan is taken yearly by all members of the community. It is estimated that 102 million people are at risk of river blindness in Africa. The vast majority of the 37 million already infected live in west, central and east Africa.

Sightsavers’ Irish office plays a key role in raising money to support this campaign – something that has often proved challenging as so few people have heard about this neglected tropical disease.

“It is precisely this – the fact that river-blindness is such an unknown, ‘unpopular’ disease, that has made me want to back the campaign to eliminate it,” says Benoît Assou-Ekotto.

“There is no point in having celebrity status, especially amongst young football fans who see me as a kind of role model, if you don’t use it properly. Observing the struggles of people living with river blindness, the poverty they’re in – and their dignity too – is overwhelming.”

The fear of going blind

Juliana nods as he talks, saying that the one thing that gives her peace is the thought that her grandchildren don’t have the fear of going blind.

“Tis better to die than have eyes eaten up by worms and them feasting in ma body!” she exclaims.

“And yet da strangest thing,” she adds with a look of sudden bewilderment, “is ma dreams. I have no idea why, but in ma dreams I not only see, I fly.” She smiles and places her hand on Nahbila’s head protectively.

“When dese arms become wings, I go wherever I want,” she adds. “Over the houses and up into the hills.”

Angela Robson is an award-winning writer and film-maker who travelled to Cameroon with Sightsavers to report on the 250 millionth treatment of river blindness. She is a freelance film-maker for The BBC and The Guardian, and a producer and reporter for BBC Radio 4 and the World Service. Her awards include the European Commission’s Natali Lorenzo Prize for Journalism, the Guardian International Development Journalism Prize and the British Media and Environment Prize

Sightsavers works to prevent, treat and cure avoidable blindness in the developing world. Help transform the life of a child in one of the poorest countries in the world today. Visit www.sightsavers.ie or text EYES to 50300 to donate €4. 100% of your donation will go to Sightsavers. Service Provider: LikeCharity 014433890

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