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Halleluiah from Nigeria does household chores after she receives her Mectizan treatment which protects her and her family against river blindness. © Kate Holt / Sightsavers

Halleluiah from Nigeria does household chores after she receives her Mectizan treatment which protects her and her family against river blindness. © Kate Holt / Sightsavers

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Protecting a Child's Future

Halleluiah is nine years old and lives with her family close to a local river in Kaduna State, in Nigeria. Both her family and her village of 2,000 people rely heavily on this river for washing, drinking, cooking and bathing, especially during the dry season, as the soil in their village does not support the building of a well.

But this river also presents a potential danger to them owing to the prevalence of the blackfly which lives by the river and causes onchocerciasis, also known as river blindness.

Halleluiah's grandfather, Kugiya Kure, is 78 and has six children and four grandchildren. He has been blind since he was 40 years old due to this cruel disease which meant he couldn't farm and provide for his family. Thanks to a Sightsavers-supported Community Based Rehabilitation Project which taught him mobility and orientation skills he is now able to grow groundnuts and maize as a source of income for himself and his family.

The sad reality is that many people of Kugiya's generation suffer similarly from river blindness. For this reason Sightsavers are working hard to eradicate river blindness so that children like Halleluiah will not have to endure the same fate as her grandfather.

Through a Sightsavers and Kaduna State Government initiative Halleluiah will be spared her grandfather's condition thanks to a tiny tablet called Mectizan, which is donated by Merck & Co. This tablet is distributed at a cost of just six cent per person per year and will protect someone like Halleluiah from river blindness for an entire year.