Voice 1
Welcome to Spotlight. I’m Joshua Leo
Voice 2
And I’m Liz Waid. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand no matter where in the world they live.
Voice 1
When she was six years old, Enatnesh had to make a choice. She had to choose to live with her father or mother – because they divorced. Her father had a job. He could support her. But Enatnesh’s mother needed her help. Her mother had trouble seeing and could not work. Enatnesh chose to live with her mother. She chose to care for her mother. Enatnesh is now sixteen years old. She spoke about her choice:
Voice 3
“If I had not gone with her she would have died. No one was there to even give her a glass of water.”
Voice 2
Enatnesh’s mother suffers from trachoma. This disease affects a person’s eyes. It is common in Ethiopia where Enatnesh and her mother live. In this area of Ethiopia, trachoma is called “hair in the eye”. Trachoma is caused by bacteria. These bacteria affect the skin on the inside of the eyelid, the skin covering the eye. The bacteria damage the eyelids. After time the skin becomes thicker. The eyes hurt and leak tears. If a person becomes infected many times, her eyelids start to turn in, towards the eye. This is what causes the worst damage.
Voice 1
When a person’s eyelids turn in, the eyelash hairs start to touch and damage the person’s eyes. People say that it feels like sharp points being pulled across the eye. Eyes are very sensitive. When they are damaged or cut they do heal, but they are never the same. They become cloudy. Images start to look soft. After many years of being infected, a person can become blind.
Voice 2
But how do people get this disease? Well the bacteria can travel on any surface that touches a person’s eyes. Flying insects, such as flies, can also carry the bacteria. Suppose a fly lands on the face of an infected person. Fluid from that person’s eyes gets onto the fly. The fly then lands on a new person’s face and so spreads the bacteria.
Voice 1
In Ethiopia, children are the most infected. And because women care for the children, women are three times more likely to become infected than men. Babies and small children cannot keep the infected flies away from their eyes. And mothers with infected children often become infected themselves by touching their children’s eyes or other infected objects.
Voice 2
Poor people are most at risk of getting trachoma. In poor areas it is difficult to get medicine to treat the disease. It is difficult to get soap for cleaning surfaces. And after a person’s eyelids turn inwards, the only solution is an eyelid operation. This can also be costly for the people.
Voice 1
A million Ethiopian people need this eye surgery. But in this country of seventy million people there are only seventy six [76] eye doctors. Most of these doctors live in the country’s capital city, Addis Ababa. People in poor faraway areas cannot reach these doctors. But some groups see this problem and are trying to help.
Voice 2
In 2007, 60,000 people in Ethiopia got the surgery. Aid groups paid for each one of these operations. But these eyelid surgeries were not performed by Ethiopian eye doctors. Aid groups such as the Carter Center, and Christian Blind Mission paid for government health workers to learn how to do the surgery. The workers trained from two to four weeks to learn the surgery. They then travelled to villages around the country to perform the treatment.
Voice 1
But these surgeries do not cure the problem. The surgery only stops the eyelashes from damaging a person’s eyes. So the aid groups have a plan to help slow the spread of trachoma. They also try to help people who already have trachoma by making the effects less. The plan is called SAFE. It stands for Surgery, Antibiotics, Face washing, and Environmental change. Surgery is done by the government health workers and paid for by the aid groups. Antibiotics are medicines. They are often given free by western medicine companies. These medicines help to heal the damage to the eyelids and reduce pain. Face washing is important to stop trachoma from spreading on people’s hands and faces. The aid groups help to provide soap for washing and to teach villagers how best to wash. And finally the aid groups help make changes in the village to slow the spread of trachoma. One of the most important changes is stopping flies.
Voice 2
Keeping flies out of people’s homes is important, but reducing the number of flies is even more important. One of the main ways the aid groups do this is by creating toilets. Many villages do not have separate toilets. They put human waste out in the open, away from the village. The flies lay most their eggs in this waste. But aid workers found that the flies do not like laying their eggs in waste that is in latrines – in toilets dug into the ground. So the aid groups are helping villages to build latrines.
Voice 1
Aid groups are also helping reduce the number of flies by catching them. They do this with a very simple trap. The trap is made from two plastic bottles. The bottom of the trap contains animal waste, and the top is empty. The flies enter to bottom of the trap to find the waste. When they have finished feeding, they enter the top of the trap but cannot escape. Before, reducing the number of flies required costly chemicals. But these fly traps can be made by children in schools using waste bottles! The aid groups hope that by reducing the number of flies, they will also reduce the cases of trachoma.
Voice 2
The World Health Organization estimates that over seventy million people around the world need treatment for trachoma. Resources are limited to fight trachoma. But the WHO believes that if governments and aid groups continue to work together, blindness because of trachoma can be stopped by the year 2020.
Voice 1
The Christian Blind Mission is a group working with the WHO. They have been fighting blindness around the world for one hundred years. This Christian group follows the example of Jesus Christ. When Jesus was on earth, he cared for many people who were sick and poor. He even healed the blind. The Christian Blind Mission wants to serve the sick and poor as Jesus did.
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