SAFE strategy helps address Millennium Development Goals (Part 2 of 2)

Admin — Thu, 18 Oct 2018 09:39:01 +0000

How does Operation Eyesight help address the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals through implementation of the SAFE strategy? (Read Part 1).

The photo essay below explains how the SAFE strategy and the MDGs seek to address similar issues. (Photos taken by Ric Rowan in Narok, Kenya. Photo caption information adapted from the International Trachoma Initiative.)

MDG 1 – Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger: Reducing the number of people blinded by trachoma helps break the devastating cycle of disability, poverty and disease. In addition, boreholes developed as part of the SAFE strategy provide fresh water for gardens, crops and livestock, which serve as a source of food and income.

MDG 2 – Achieve universal primary education: School attendance, by both girls and boys, is improved by preventing the chronic recurrence of trachoma in children. Additionally, preventing blindness among adults means that children do not have to stay home to care for their parents.

MDG 3 – Promote gender equality and empower women: Because trachoma is more prevalent among women than men, trachoma inhibits gender equity. By eliminating the threat of trachoma, we improve a woman’s ability to become an active participant in her community and contribute to her family’s socioeconomic stability.

MDG 4 – Improve child mortality: SAFE implementation reduces infant mortality through improved sanitation and the reduction of serious illness.

MDG 6 – Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases: Through the implementation of the full SAFE strategy, the elimination of blinding trachoma as a public health problem can be achieved, freeing the world of the leading cause of preventable blindness.

MDG 7 – Ensure environmental sustainability: Environmental change, including wells and latrines, provides access to safe, clean water and sanitation. Community-led committees maintain the wells and latrines, ensuring the sustainability of these environmental changes.

MDG 8 – Develop a global partnership for development: In order to eliminate blinding trachoma, we need collaboration among partners at all levels. This collaboration is demonstrated through Operation Eyesight’s involvement with the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB), Vision 2020 and Seeing is Believing. We are all working together towards a common goal: to eliminate avoidable blindness!

Thank you to our donors for supporting us as we implement the SAFE strategy and work to address the MDGs! To learn more about our trachoma projects, visit our Programs and Projects pages.

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SAFE strategy helps address Millennium Development Goals (Part 1 of 2)

Admin — Thu, 18 Oct 2018 09:39:00 +0000

In 2000, world leaders adopted the United Nations Millennium Declaration, which included eight international development goals known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Since then, United Nations member states and international organizations across the globe have been working to achieve the MDGs – which address common issues such as poverty, disease, quality of life and environmental sustainability – before the deadline of December 31, 2015.

As a member of the eye health community, Operation Eyesight helps address the MDGs through implementation of the SAFE strategy, a strategy that has proven effective in preventing the spread of the blinding eye disease trachoma.

Trachoma is the world’s leading cause of preventable blindness. Caused by bacterial infection, it spreads easily through contact with eye discharge from infected people on hands, towels and clothing, and also through direct transmission by flies. Children are most susceptible to trachoma, and because of their role as primary caregivers, women are three times more likely than men to be blinded by the disease.

The SAFE strategy is a comprehensive treatment and prevention program that includes Surgery to treat the late stage of the disease, Antibiotics to eliminate infection, Face washing and hygiene education, and Environmental change including wells and latrines.

Properly implemented, the SAFE strategy permanently eliminates trachoma. Because of the emphasis on clean water and sanitation, it also dramatically improves the general health and prosperity of whole communities.

Come back next week to learn how the SAFE strategy and the MDGs both work to address similar issues, and why our donors’ support is so important in the war against trachoma!

Left untreated, trachoma causes the eyelid to turn inward. The eyelashes start to rub the eyeball, resulting in intense pain and scarring of the cornea. This ultimately leads to irreversible blindness.

The post SAFE strategy helps address Millennium Development Goals (Part 1 of 2) appeared first on Operation Eyesight.

Millenium Development Goals Archives - Operation Eyesight

SAFE strategy helps address Millennium Development Goals (Part 2 of 2)

SAFE strategy helps address Millennium Development Goals (Part 1 of 2)