River Blindness – Nigeria

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River Blindness – Nigeria

Description

Save children and adults from unbearable pain and life-long blindness. The impact of your gift will be multiplied x7.

Your gift will be multiplied x7, because every $1 you send means $7 of medication reaches the remote villages at greatest risk of River Blindness.

Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) cause excruciating pain and chronic disability to more than one billion people infected in the poorest communities of the world. Approximately 90% of these diseases can be treated with medicines administered once or twice a year.

This programme aims to contribute towards the control and elimination of five debilitating NTDs – River Blindness, Trachoma, Elephantiasis, Schistosomiasis and Soil Transmitted Helminths. The goal of this project is to follow World Health Organisation approaches to contribute to the elimination of NTDs in Nigeria.

THE NEED

Africa has the highest burden of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) in the world. Nigeria has the largest population in Africa and is facing disproportionately large risks for contracting and transmitting these debilitating diseases. Several NTDs affect vision and can lead to permanent visual loss.

An estimated 31 million people in Nigeria are at risk of blindness and a variety of debilitating and disfiguring skin conditions from Onchocerciasis (River Blindness).

8.7 million Nigerians are at risk of Trachoma where, if left untreated, the disease causes eyelids to turn inwards resulting in pain in the eyes and eventual blindness.

Other diseases such as Lymphatic Filariases commonly known as Elephantiasis transmitted through mosquitoes, can cause permanent disability through severe swelling of arms, legs and body parts. Approximately 88 million Nigerians are at risk of contracting the disease.

Nigeria has the highest burden of Schistosomiasis in Africa, a parasitic disease that penetrates the skin of people in the water which can cause cancer of the bladder, anaemia, liver dysfunction and more.

Nigeria also has one of the highest risk of Soil Transmitted Helminths which is caused by the ingestion of eggs from contaminated soil. Commonly this inflicts school-aged children from impoverished rural communities with a wide range of symptoms including diarrhoea, anaemia, and impairment of growth.

These diseases thrive in impoverished, tropical regions where there is poor sanitation, unsafe drinking water, numerous insects to spread disease and little access to health services and Government support.

WHAT YOUR GENEROUS SUPPORT CAN HELP FUND

  • Distributing essential preventive drug treatments to rural communities.
  • Improving access to safe water and hygiene practices to reduce transmission of disease.
  • Supporting the Government of Nigeria to run public awareness campaigns.

Additional information

Frequency

One-off, Every Week, Every 2 Weeks, Every 4 Weeks, Every Month, Quarterly, Annually

River Blindness

Help eradicate River Blindness for good.

Your caring gift is urgently needed to eradicate River Blindness for good.

Your gift will go 7 times further!

“I know the plans I have for you… plans to give you a hope and a future.”  – Jeremiah 29:11

It’s not the nasty, biting flies that cause the damage... it’s the parasites they carry – thousands of tiny larvae that slowly and agonisingly steal a person’s vision, leaving them permanently blind.

Today, we’re fighting two battles.

One against River Blindness itself. And another against distance – the vast, unforgiving distance between our stores of the blindness-preventing medicine, and the last remaining hotspots of infection in the world’s most remote communities.

With your urgent support, you can help close this distance. Please will you prayerfully consider sending a sight-saving gift today?

Your generosity will go 7 times further in the fight to eliminate River Blindness for good, because your sight-saving impact will be multiplied by 7 to supply medication to protect children and adults from this devastating disease.

They say that where the road ends, River Blindness begins. And that’s never been more true.

The last remaining hotspots are the hardest to reach – tiny, isolated villages far from any road, deep in the most remote regions.

Thanks to the incredible generosity of supporters like you, we are so close to eliminating River Blindness in community after community where cbm works. This is an historic moment – one you can be proud of!

If we don’t act now, River Blindness could return with devastating consequences.

We cannot let this happen. We must get medicine to these final pockets of infection before it’s too late.

Going Further - Your River Blindness Progress Bulletin

Please send your life-changing gift today so that its impact can be multiplied by seven to supply sight-saving treatment.

The only way to fully eliminate River Blindness is to treat every affected community with medicine annually for at least ten years. This ensures that every single parasitic worm is wiped out – freeing entire villages from the disease forever.

We are close. So close.

But to finish this fight, we need you now more than ever.

We have stocks of medicine ready to go – but we just need your help to get it to the people who live in harm’s way in River Blindness hotspots. Please send your gift today so its impact can go 7 times further in the battle to eradicate River Blindness for good.

Thank you for being part of this life-changing mission.

Click here to read Going Further - Your River Blindness Progress Bulletin