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Trachoma Education Hits the Road

Meet Frew Demeke, a logistics officer with The Carter Center, who heads up a mobile health van in Ethiopia, traveling to schools and towns to teach communities about trachoma, the world’s leading cause of blindness.

Globally, more than 200 million people are at risk of contracting trachoma, a bacterial eye infection that can cause the eyelid to turn inward and scrape the cornea with every blink. In Ethiopia, the country with the highest burden of trachoma infections, Demeke explains how the World Health Organization-endorsed SAFE strategy--Surgery, Antibiotics, Face washing, and Environmental improvement--can prevent the disease from spreading.

The Carter Center, with support from its partners, has been fighting trachoma in Africa since 1998. Today, the Trachoma Control Program assists ministries of health in six endemic countries in Africa: Ethiopia, Mali, Niger, Sudan, South Sudan, and Uganda. The Center's efforts are part of a global push to eliminate the blinding effects of the disease worldwide by 2020.

Learn more about the Center's Trachoma Control Program:
http://www.cartercenter.org/health/tr...

Learn more about the Center's work in Ethiopia:
http://www.cartercenter.org/countries...

Founded in 1982 by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter in partnership with Emory University, The Carter Center is committed to advancing human rights and alleviating unnecessary human suffering. The Center wages peace, fights disease, and builds hope worldwide.