SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY is today launching a Bring 50p to Work Day to raise thousands of pounds to help prevent blindness in developing countries.
Companies and organisations, large and small, are being asked to take part in the Day on Friday, December 14, to provide much-needed funds for Sightsavers International.
The central message is that just 50p will help to treat a child suffering from trachoma, the second-biggest cause of preventable blindness in the world. Just £5 will help pay for an operation that reverses the most extreme form of the disease.
Last week, at the start of our Christmas Appeal, we reported from Tanzania, where, in some remote desert villages, up to half the population is affected by trachoma. The conjunctivitis-like infection is spread by flies, unsanitary conditions and a lack of water to wash the bacteria off faces and away from vulnerable eyes.
Yet trachoma can be treated with a tube of antibiotic ointment costing just 50p. If the disease is allowed to develop, the eyelids turn in on themselves and the eyelashes stick to the cornea. It is a painful and distressing condition that leads to total loss of vision.
Even then the condition, known as trichiasis, can be reversed by a 20-minute operation that restores vision, allowing its victims to lead a normal life. Adults who develop trichiasis (it often affects mothers and grandmothers charged with looking after infected children) are unable to carry out their family and village duties.
The problem is insufficient funding for the ointment and for training the surgeons required to carry out the operations. Around 20% of blindness in Tanzania is caused by trachoma, yet it can so easily be prevented.
Funds are also short for the health workers who travel to the most remote villages to spread the "wash your face daily" message that can make a huge difference to the spread of the disease. More financial support is also required for basic improvements to water supplies and sanitation – simple measures that will help to eliminate a disease that was largely wiped out in the developed world at the start of the 20th century.
In more accessible areas of Tanzania, where improvements have been made, rates of trachoma have fallen dramatically.
Money has been provided for building wells close to affected villages so that women do not have to make long journeys every day to fetch water for drinking. With water in such short supply, constantly washing children's faces in the dusty, arid conditions of the vast Tanzanian interior is not a priority.
In African countries where major health problems such as Aids suck up the health care budget, treatment of eye conditions – which are distressing but not life-threatening – is generally underfunded. As we report today (opposite), funds are also short for the spectacles that can help children with poor vision to lead normal lives.
With Sightsavers International, which has a fund-raising office for Scotland in Edinburgh, Scotland on Sunday has produced a poster and information sheet that can be downloaded from our website, www.scotlandonsunday.com.
It gives details of how to organise a Bring 50p to Work Day and how to donate any funds raised. Every company or organisation that takes part will be credited for their generosity in subsequent editions of the newspaper.
A number of major companies and organisations have already agreed to take part and we hope that many more will agree to join in before December 14.
The focus is 50p but please give more if you can. Bellshill-based IT company Cisco has already decided to double the amount raised by its employees. Hardeep Singh Kohli, Tom Brown and other Scotland on Sunday columnists are donating their fees this week. The HBOS Foundation, the charitable arm of the Bank of Scotland, has kickstarted the appeal with a £10,000 donation.
Last year, readers raised more than £30,000 for Sightsavers International eye care projects in west Africa, and this year we would like to beat that amount. If you would like to donate, please use the coupon printed on this page.
Next Sunday, we will launch our online auction which last year contributed thousands of pounds to the total. There will be a range of exciting lots to bid for, including having your name being used for a character in a new novel by Christopher Brookmyre, one of Scotland's best-selling fiction writers, a helicopter ride and lunch at a top hotel for four, a day at the Nick Nairn cookery school or a place at a Gordonstoun summer school.
Full details will be published next Sunday and the auction will conclude on Sunday, December 23.
You may download a
'Sightsavers 50 pence Friday' poster and supporting
Sightsavers pamphlet here. (You will need
Acrobat reader to open the pdf files.)
Scotland on Sunday Christmas Appeal
Q&A docWhat does Sightsavers do?Sightsavers works with local partners to combat blindness in developing countries, restoring sight through specialist treatment and eye care. We also support people who are irreversibly blind by providing education, counselling and training. We help the people who need it most - those living in poverty in some of the world's poorest countries – by supporting the development of long-term projects.
Where will donations from the appeal go?Donations made to the Scotland on Sunday Christmas Appeal will be spent wherever the need is greatest. Sightsavers works in over 30 developing countries throughout Africa, Asia and the Caribbean.
How much of the money raised by Sightsavers goes towards the projects it supports?In 2006, 71.1% of expenditure went towards projects, which equated to £17.69m. The remaining money was spent on generating funds to support our work in the future and governance costs. For more information please see our 2006 Annual Review on our
website.
What governance does Sightsavers have in place to ensure that monies raised from the appeal actually reach the people they are meant to help?Sightsavers works with local partner organisations who are as equally passionate about our mission and values as we are. They have strong links into the community and are committed to ensuring that the money is spent in the most effective way to support the poorest in the community.
All our partners are happy to engage in careful financial monitoring, with comprehensive measures in place to track expenditure. Sightsavers partners submit regular reports and accounts and are visited regularly by our country office staff as well as an independent audit team.
How does Sightsavers work to treat Trachoma?Sightsavers applies the WHO recommended SAFE strategy for combating trachoma - Surgery, Antibiotics, Face washing and Environment changes.
Sightsavers and its partners train community health workers to identify trachoma and also educate villagers on the signs of the infection. The antibiotic ointment, tetracycline, which costs just 50 pence a tube and is taken over a six week period, is effective in curing the disease and preventing the onset of trichiasis.
Where the disease has developed into trichiasis, following repeated infection and scarring of the cornea, surgery can prevent blindness by stopping the eyelashes from rubbing against the eyeball. This surgery is typically done at a community level by a specially trained health worker.
As well as training community health workers to identify trachoma, education amongst villagers plays a key role in prevention. Encouraging face and hand washing can help reduce transmission rates.
Lastly, to beat trachoma in the long term, communities are being encouraged to set up local sanitation committees to build latrines, separate their live stock from areas where people sleep, and ensure rubbish is collected and burnt regularly. This helps reduce the number of flies with which people come into contact with.
Is improving water sanitation for communities, like those featured in the appeal, an area Sightsavers has considered supporting? To date, funds have largely been focused on projects that aim to reduce the prevalence rates of trachoma in communities, and to identify and operate on those suffering from trichiasis before their blindness becomes irreversible.
However Sightsavers is also working in conjunction with partners, such as WaterAid and local governments to support schemes that provide clean water and sanitation for communities, implementing a critical part of the SAFE strategy.
Killa Virkan, a small village in Punjab, Pakistan is one such community where this is taking place. As well as focusing on community education, and intensive training of community health workers, Sightsavers has worked with local partners and local government to improve village infrastructure. Providing clean filtered water, along with building latrines, paving roads etc has improved village sanitation. Due to the success of the changes, in virtually eradicating trachoma, the project is now being rolled out to six other villages in the area over the next few months.
Does Sightsavers accept the donation of used spectacles? Sightsavers policy is not to collect and send second-hand glasses to developing countries but instead to fund the local production of glasses which are then used as an income generating scheme for our local partners, providing high quality glasses at a small cost. In our experience, using second glasses also incurs costs. The glasses have to be cleaned and measured to find out what strength they are and shipped over to the relevant country.
