How Sightsavers is protecting sight in the world's poorest countries

Since 1950, Sightsavers has been protecting sight, eliminating diseases and promoting disability inclusion in some of the world's poorest countries.  

Through the Audacious Project, Virgin Unite is a proud supporter of Sightsavers’ Accelerate project, which is focused on eliminating trachoma – the world’s number one infectious cause of blindness. Here’s more about the project's lifesaving work...  

Nene sits up following trachoma surgery on the porch of her home while Forma,trachoma surgeon and his assistant Dionesa clean up from the surgery | Sightsavers/Alyssa Mariner

It’s an extraordinary day when you find yourself having an eye operation on your own front porch – but that’s exactly what happened to 72-year-old Nene at her rural village home one baking hot afternoon.  

Nene lives in the western Cacheu region of Guinea-Bissau. For the inhabitants of this remote area, access to health care is far from straightforward. The roads are bumpy and filled with potholes that can flood during the rainy season, and the walk from Nene’s village to the nearest community health centre is more than two hours’ journey on foot. 

As part of its work in Guinea-Bissau, Sightsavers (an international development organisation working in more than 30 countries in Africa and Asia) has outreach programmes to find and treat people with trachoma, an eye infection that can cause pain and eventual blindness. Tackling the disease requires collaboration with the ministry of health, regional health authorities and local community volunteers who distribute treatments. Some of this work is done through mass drug administration programmes to treat large groups of people at once, and this is supplemented by teams going house-to-house in more remote areas to find people who might otherwise be missed. 

Dionesa, nurse assistant, grabs surgical materials while Forma preps Nene for trachoma surgery on the porch of her home | Sightsavers/Alyssa Mariner

Nene was one of the people the Sightsavers team met on an outreach visit. Within an hour of being identified as having advanced trachoma, she found herself being prepped for surgery. The surgeon, Forma, and his assistant Dionesa, sang along to the radio as they laid out a mat on Nene’s porch – an enclosed area to minimise dust and dirt – and set out their box of surgical supplies. Forma donned his scrubs, Nene lay on the mat and the work began. It got so hot during the procedure that Dionesa was fanning the surgeon with a towel to try and stop his glasses fogging up!  

In just 20 minutes, the operation was complete. Forma checked the sutures, applied antibiotic ointment and bandages to Nene’s affected eye, then packed up his surgical box and set off for the next house.  

Nene’s eyelid surgery, necessary because of repeated trachoma infections that caused her pain for years, is something future generations living here won’t have to endure. That’s because this year, once the last few advanced cases are identified and treated, the government will submit a dossier to the World Health Organization to show that Guinea-Bissau has eliminated trachoma as a public health problem.  

Domingus holds medication and looks at Nene following her trachoma surgery which was carried out at their home | Sightsavers/Alyssa Mariner

Trachoma remains one of the leading causes of infectious blindness worldwide, affecting around 115 million people. It’s one of 21 neglected tropical diseases – a group of infections and conditions that can cause pain, blindness, limb pain, sickness and, in some cases, death. These diseases can be prevented, treated and eliminated, with medication costing as little as 15p per person. 

Through its Accelerate programme, Sightsavers is helping to achieve the milestone of trachoma elimination in Guinea-Bissau. This success follows years of sustained action by the country’s government and a network of organisations, with the support of Virgin Unite and other partners as part of the Audacious Project.   

Visit Sightsavers to learn more about its work.