Lions Clubs International Foundation Chairperson Wayne Madden announced May 15 an $8.8 million gift for its joint effort with Atlanta’s Carter Center for their joint SightFirst Initiative to battle major causes of preventable blindness in Africa.
Former President Jimmy Carter said, “The Lions continued financial support will help The Carter Center, local Lions clubs and other national partners defeat preventable blindness in some of the most affected communities in the world.”
The Carter Center-supported efforts against trachoma and river blindness are reaching major milestones and scaling up.
Mali and Niger are making progress in eliminating blinding trachoma by 2015, and efforts to eliminate trachoma from the Amhara Region of Ethiopia, the most highly endemic region of the world, are generating promising results. In addition, the Center has changed its approach to river blindness in Africa. It announced last year it was no longer working to control the disease, but seeking to assist ministries of health to eliminate it from the areas where the Center works.
Local Lions clubs will help mobilize impacted communities to participate in mass drug administration, eyelid surgery campaigns, health education and latrine construction. The disease of often spread by flies. Lions will also work with local leaders to increase participation in activities related to river blindness and trachoma in their communities. The Lions Clubs International Foundation has given $42 million in grants to The Carter Center.
Trachoma is an infectious eye disease that is a leading cause of blindness and suffering in the poorest regions of the world. River blindness is spread by the bites of black flies and is a dreadful skin disease that can also cause blindness. The majority of river blindness occurs in Africa, where more than 120 million people are at risk and hundreds of thousands have been blinded by the condition.
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