A GREY-HAIRED woman sits on the dilapidated front porch of her adobe home scratching furiously at the inside of her arm. Juliana has river blindness, a disease that claimed her sight sixteen years ago and which has left her in almost permanent physical distress.
“Every night da worms, dey come alive under ma skin!” she tells me in her pigeon English, thrusting forwards both arms, livid with scars and bumps. “Truly da pain is a terrible thing,” she says, jabbing the air. “I ask ma Saviour each day to take me from dis life but he be not for listening. How am I to bear it?”
We are high in the hills above Bamenda, in the mountainous north-west of Cameroon. I am here with the humanitarian agency Sightsavers, who are in Cameroon to mark the 250millionth distribution of Mectizan, a preventative treatment for river blindness.
River blindness is transmitted through the bite of a black fly, which breeds in fast-flowing water. The disease is caused by tiny larvae which multiply in the body, triggering terrible itching, skin rashes and blindness.
The Spurs football star, Benoît Assou-Ekotto, beloved in Cameroon for his devotion to the national team, eccentric hairstyles and commitment to social issues, has agreed to distribute the 250 millionth treatment, and wherever he goes, we are mobbed.
The only person who seems unfazed by the media circus surrounding Benoît is Nahbila, the six-year-old granddaughter of Juliana. Nahbila has been chosen to be the recipient of the 250 millionth treatment. Any thoughts that she will be overwhelmed by her role evaporate as soon as the cameras swoop down on her.
Nahbila flashes a beaming smile to the press, does a twirl, then places Benoît’s hand firmly on Juliana’s arm, whose melancholy evaporates as soon as she discovers who Benoît is. Soon the three are heading slowly, but gaily along the rocky path leading down from Juliana’s home, to the road.
The impact of river blindness is felt not only by the person living with the disease, but the whole community. Children miss out on education because they need to stay at home to look after their older relatives, while entire villages flee the most fertile land for fear of losing their sight.
Vera, a softly spoken woman in her early twenties, who lives less than a mile away from Juliana, tells me that her own grandmother’s river blindness robbed the whole family of their economic security – and, she feels, her future. Vera was doing exceptionally well at school and had hopes, one day, of becoming a journalist.
When she was told that her parents, because of her grandmother’s medical bills, could no longer pay her school fees, she was devastated. Aged thirteen Vera became a carer, expected to help her mother look after her grandmother 24/7.
Did she resent this, I asked? Yes, she tells me, she regrets the loss not just of her education, but of her dreams though she felt no bitterness to her grandmother.
“I just feel sorrow for her,” she says, looking into her grandmother’s milky eyes. “Sometimes I think of her life of permanent darkness. And what makes it harder, strangely, is the fact that she never complains, but accepts her lot with real humility.”
Sighstavers have been waging a war against river blindness since the 1950s, believing that it is possible to eliminate the disease by 2021, but only if Mectizan is taken yearly by all members of the community. It is estimated that 102 million people are at risk of river blindness in Africa. The vast majority of the 37 million already infected live in west, central and east Africa.
Sightsavers’ Irish office plays a key role in raising money to support this campaign – something that has often proved challenging as so few people have heard about this neglected tropical disease.
“It is precisely this – the fact that river-blindness is such an unknown, ‘unpopular’ disease, that has made me want to back the campaign to eliminate it,” says Benoît Assou-Ekotto.
“There is no point in having celebrity status, especially amongst young football fans who see me as a kind of role model, if you don’t use it properly. Observing the struggles of people living with river blindness, the poverty they’re in – and their dignity too – is overwhelming.”
Juliana nods as he talks, saying that the one thing that gives her peace is the thought that her grandchildren don’t have the fear of going blind.
“Tis better to die than have eyes eaten up by worms and them feasting in ma body!” she exclaims.
“And yet da strangest thing,” she adds with a look of sudden bewilderment, “is ma dreams. I have no idea why, but in ma dreams I not only see, I fly.” She smiles and places her hand on Nahbila’s head protectively.
“When dese arms become wings, I go wherever I want,” she adds. “Over the houses and up into the hills.”
Angela Robson is an award-winning writer and film-maker who travelled to Cameroon with Sightsavers to report on the 250 millionth treatment of river blindness. She is a freelance film-maker for The BBC and The Guardian, and a producer and reporter for BBC Radio 4 and the World Service. Her awards include the European Commission’s Natali Lorenzo Prize for Journalism, the Guardian International Development Journalism Prize and the British Media and Environment Prize
Sightsavers works to prevent, treat and cure avoidable blindness in the developing world. Help transform the life of a child in one of the poorest countries in the world today. Visit www.sightsavers.ie or text EYES to 50300 to donate €4. 100% of your donation will go to Sightsavers. Service Provider: LikeCharity 014433890
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