By Mulatu Gebre | Orbis Ethiopia
It is unusual to see the blinding form of trahoma in children younger than 15. In areas where trachoma is hyper endemic and recurrence of the infection is very high, young children with blinding trachoma is all too common. Dita woreda, in southern Ethiopia, is one such area. In the worst affected areas up to 70% of children have trachoma, a figure I struggle to imagine.
Alemnesh is an 11 year old girl who lives in Lisha village of the Dita region, with her family of seven. In the past year, Alemnesh has been suffering from tearing, aversion to light, and pain which forced her to lose focus on her education.
No one in the family knew that Alemnesh was suffering from trachoma. Without any knowledge or understanding Alemnesh's condition went untreated and ultimately her sight deteriorated further as more of her eye lashes turned inwards, scratching on her cornea and causing excruciating pain.
One day, Alemnesh went to visit her grandmother. While she was there, Zenebech, the local health extension worker dropped in for a routine visit. She noticed straight away that Alemnesh had a problem with her eyes.
Zenebech, who has been trained in primary eye care evaluations by Orbis, examined Alemnesh and noticed straight away that she had blinding trachoma. Zenebech advised that the disease could be treated quickly and easily. Zenebech contacted the local eye care worker, from the local health centre and made an appointment for an operation.
Shortly after, Alemnesh and her grandmother went to the health centre to receive treatment. The eye care worker, Tsehay, examined Alemnesh and conducted lid surgery - free of charge - thanks to Orbis!
A week later and Alemnesh returned to the health centre for a post op checkup. This was a very special day for Alemnesh - she felt no pain and her vision was clear.
She said “I never thought that lid surgery would be a simple procedure to go through when I was told what the treatment for my eye condition was…My wish now is to attend school with comfort and to work hard. Opportunity always helps people like me”
Millions of people are still suffering needlessly in Ethiopia, where treatment is scarcely available, and sufferers are forced to take desperate measures, often pulling out their eyelashes to stop them scratching their eyes.
Orbis is working to change this and thanks to your support we are completely transforming these regions of Ethiopia
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
