Physical Health Ethiopia Project #23244

Ensuring Girls in Ethiopia Receive Basic Eye Care

by Orbis Ireland

Ensuring Girls in Ethiopia Receive Basic Eye Care

Project Report | Jan 31, 2019
We achieve so much, thank you!

By Diane Weatherup | Development Director

Help girls to be free from the threat of blindness

There is a gender gap in eye health – 55% of the world’s visually impaired people are women and girls. Gender inequality means that women and girls face barriers to accessing services. They may have less financial control to pay for services, or they may be unable to travel to access treatment.

Since 2006, Orbis has been working to eliminate a blinding and life-destroying eye disease- trachoma- in southern Ethiopia.

Shockingly, women in this region are three times more likely to get trachoma than men. Orbis works to reduce this disparity by bringing health care services directly to the community and at no charge.

In just over a decade, we have significantly reduced the prevalence of blinding trachoma in Ethiopia, in both men and women.

Fighting preventable blindness contributes to greater gender equality – enabling women and girls to access education, employment, and community life.

The results are staggering. Your generous, commitment not only ensures that women do not go unnecessarily blind, but also that children return to school, their parents can return to work to provide for their families and entire communities are free from the plight of blindness.

In 2019, with your help, Orbis will expand this success into new regions of Ethiopia, reaching more than 3.4million people.

On behalf of all those whose lives we have touched, we thank you for making it possible. With your continued support, we will build on these achievements in 2019.

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Oct 24, 2018
Orbis Ensures Girls Have Equal Access to Education

By Sophia Webb | Orbis Intern

Ribka is delighted with her new glasses

RibkaTanto is a 16-year-old girl who lives in Zefano Kebele, southern Ethiopia.

Currently a 10^th grade student at Zefine Highschool, Ribka realized that she was experiencing vision loss five years ago when she began to struggle to read anything written on the blackboard. Because of her poor vision, she was forced to borrow her friend’s exercise books to copy during her breaktime.

Sometimes Ribka’s classmates refused to give her their exercise books. Even when they did, she found it difficult to read their handwriting. As a solution to her vision challenge, she tried sitting in the front of the class. But this did not help at all. Thankfully, Ribka’s teachers were very understanding and cooperative. They made exam sheets for her while the rest of the class read the questions from the blackboard.

Ribka’s family did not know what caused her vision struggle nor the recommended treatment as they had never seen such a condition. Luckily, Orbis trained one of the teachers in Ribka’s school on primary eye care and vision screening as well as referral techniques. Ribka took part in the school screening campaign where it was discovered that she was short-sighted.

In December 2017, an optometrist from Zefano Health Centre came to Ribka’s school to rescreen the students who had been diagnosed with vision problems by their teacher. Ribka’s diagnosis was indeed correct. Ribka was given free glasses which improved her vision.

A week after Ribka had received her glasses, Orbis staff visited Zefine Highschool to find her taking exams and reading from the blackboard just like the other students.

Ribka was delighted to finally be able to see like her classmates. “I have already started reading letters and words written on the blackboard quite comfortably and I would like to thank Orbis for providing this invaluable service for me as well as for my community.Thanks to Orbis and my teacher, borrowing other student’s exercise book is now history!”

Thanks to your generous support, Orbis can continue to help girls like Ribka. They do not have to needlessly struggle with visual impairment and can continue their education, which is something every child deserves.

Ribka struggled to read her friend's handwriting

Ribka can finally see like her classmates

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Jul 31, 2018
Young mother's agony ended by simple surgery

By Clare O'Dea | Director, Orbis Ireland

Sando Shangne & Godegn Moteche

Godegn Moteche is a 27-year-old mother of four young children, aged 6, 5, 4 and 3 years. She lives in Zazie kebele in southern Ethiopia. Godegn works as a farmer and lives with her husband, children and mother-in-law. Her family rely heavily on her to cook, clean, manage the home and raise the children, in addition to helping her husband with the farm.

Godegn has been quietly suffering with trachoma for many years. Her eyes have been tearing constantly and she has found it more and more difficult to undertake her daily duties.

Unfortunately, her pregnancies prevented her from taking the antibiotic Zithromax when the earlier rounds were being distributed in her village by Orbis. She took tetracycline ointment instead on these occasions. Since having her children she has taken Zithromax but the prolonged trachoma infection has caused the advanced stage of trichiasis in her left eye. This has left her with excruciating pain as her eyelids have turned inwards, scratching her cornea with every blink. If left untreated, Godegn would eventually lose sight in that eye.

Godegn had never been to the health clinic but after seeing her friend's sight being fully restored after surgery conducted by, Sando Shangne, an Orbis trained Eye Care Worker, she decided to make the 13km journey on foot. While Godegn was clearly nervous, Sando explained the process and reassured her. Luckily, there was no charge for the 30-minute surgery and after a short recovery period, Godegn was able to walk home, accompanied by her sister-in-law.

Two days later Godegn returned to the health clinic for a check-up and then she returned again a few days later to have her stitches removed. This time she walked home with her sight restored, happy and relieved in the knowledge that she could go back to working and looking after her family without any pain or the worry of going blind.

Mothers like Godegn are role models for their daughters, families and friends. Thanks to your generous support, others who find themselves suffering from trachoma can follow their example and seek the help they need, so they can live productive and pain-free lives, without the worry of going blind.

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