Lack of toilets are causing blindness

CALGARY, Oct. 21 /CNW/ - Stop, close your eyes, and take a moment to imagine what your life would be like without toilets and sparkling water.

Here in Canada, we often take these things for granted because we have easy access to clean water, one of the most precious resources in the world. Yet in developing countries, nearly 80 percent of illnesses are linked to contaminated water and poor sanitation conditions.

Operation Eyesight Universal (OEU) is challenging local Calgary businesses to support the "Thanks for Tanks" campaign and help wipe out unnecessary blindness in Kenya. This creative campaign will provide proper latrines for families in Kenya at a cost of $65 a unit. The goal is to provide 1,000 latrines by the end of October 2010. "We take basic sanitation for granted; yet toilets and blindness are directly connected," says Pat Ferguson, President and CEO of Operation Eyesight. "Sanitation and clean water are in short supply throughout Africa, which leads to serious health problems, including a high rate of avoidable blindness."

Trachoma, caused by bacterial infection, is the world's leading cause of preventable blindness. It has largely disappeared in developed countries, but still plagues many African countries, causing millions of people immense pain, disability, and often loss of sight.

The "Thanks for Tanks" campaign will help support Operation Eyesight's trachoma elimination project in Kenya. Operation Eyesight is noted for its implementation of the World Health Organization's full SAFE strategy that eliminates trachoma. The SAFE strategy involves drilling boreholes to provide clean water and constructing latrines to prevent transmission of the bacteria by flies, in addition to educating communities, encouraging face washing, dispensing antibiotics and providing lid surgery.

"Past efforts to deal with this problem focused on controlling the disease with antibiotics and treating the painful trichiasis with lid surgery, only to see it return again and again," says Ferguson. "We now know the only way to permanently defeat this disease is to make sure people have access to sanitation and clean water. Unfortunately, a latrine is an unaffordable luxury for many people in Africa. Through this campaign, we're raising money to provide communities with the supplies they need to construct latrines."

Operation Eyesight is an international development organization dedicated to preventing and treating avoidable blindness in developing countries for almost 50 years-primarily in India and Africa. We help local medical professionals provide blindness prevention programs and comprehensive, sustainable eye care for the people of the world who can least afford it. Since 1963, Operation Eyesight has prevented blindness in more than 35 million people. For more information, visit www.operationeyesight.com.

Global Blindness - Every five seconds, one person in our world goes blind and a child goes blind every minute. More than 90 percent of the world's blind live in developing countries, where day-to-day life is already daunting and blindness is a direct threat to life. Over 80 percent of this blindness is preventable or treatable.  Trachoma is a disease of the eye caused by bacterial infection and is easily spread. Children are most susceptible. The disease progresses gradually until scarring from prolonged infection causes the eyelashes to turn inward and scratch the cornea, leading slowly and painfully to complete blindness. In the developing world, more than 80 million people are affected by trachoma with over 8 million suffering the late painful stage of the disease.

Sanitation: More than 1.2 billion people in the world do not have even the most basic sanitation facilities.
Clean Water: More than 884 million people in the world do not have access to clean water.

For further information:

For interviews or more information, please contact:

Jennifer Diggens
Fund Development Coordinator
Phone: [phone]
Toll-free: 1-800-585-8265
[email protected]

or

Lindsay O'Connor
Head of International Media Operation Eyesight Universal
Phone: [phone]
Mobile: [phone]
[email protected]
www.operationeyesight.com