Priceless gift of sight

Published on Sunday 17 December 2006 00:38

TWELVE pence. It won't buy a stamp, let alone a Christmas card to be casually discarded once the festivities are over.

Consider, though, its impact in the West African nation of Sierra Leone. There, in one of the most impoverished nations in the world, a former British colony where the health service has been badly damaged by civil war, it will pay for the annual distribution of a medicine that will save a child from going blind in later life.

Twelve pence is what it costs to get one tablet of Mectizan into the villages where river blindness is taking a terrible toll. A small amount of money in the right hands can do an enormous amount. That is why Scotland on Sunday has this year chosen Sightsavers International as the focus of its Christmas campaign.

River blindness is spread by a parasite carried by the plagues of blackfly that breed in Sierra Leone's fast-flowing rivers.

Throughout West Africa, thousands of breadwinning adults go blind because of its effects. Whole families suffer, yet it's a disease so easy to prevent.

Last month, this newspaper highlighted the work that Sightsavers does in training the community workers who make sure that Mectizan gets to the right places. So far, readers have responded generously, with more than 3,000 raised - that's 25,000 Mectizan tablets distributed already - but there is a need for much more.

As we have reported in recent weeks, Sightsavers provides funds for children who need operations for cataracts, a condition robbing them of a future. It gives hope to children in schools for the blind who have been virtually orphaned through their disability. It helps people blinded by accident and disease that would have been prevented in the West. 27 buys a cataract operation. 25 buys braille materials to last a blind student a year. 30 provides a bicycle for health workers to reach remote villages. 55 pays for the lens kits to give five people with cataracts the ability to see again. Our coverage of Sightsavers' activities is this week on page six. Please help if you can.