Our Work

School girls wash their hands and faces with clean water during their lunch break to help prevent trachoma. © Jamshyd Masud / Sightsavers

School girls wash their hands and faces with clean water during their lunch break to help prevent trachoma. © Jamshyd Masud / Sightsavers

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Vision for a Village

It is early morning in Killa Virkan village and children gather at a water pump to wash their faces and hands. Thanks to regular health education sessions at the government primary school in the village they understand the importance of good hygiene in preventing infectious diseases such as trachoma.

We meet ten-year-old Kausar, who attends the school, in the maze of narrow lanes that run through the village. She tells us she wants to be a doctor when she grows up, and there is no reason why she shouldn't succeed - she studies hard. Yet this dream was almost jeopardised when she contracted the potentially blinding disease trachoma last year and the pain in her eyes made it impossible to concentrate on her studies.

 

In the dark

Back then there were no health education sessions and Kausar didn't know what trachoma was or how to stop it. Or that it was the lack of adequate water and the rubbish piled up in the streets that led to her, and hundreds of others in the village, getting the infection in the first place. But in much of rural Pakistan there are simply not enough local resources to provide sufficient facilities so trachoma, and other diseases such as cholera, are common.

How to be SAFE

Because Killa Virkan was one of three villages with such high levels of active trachoma, it was chosen by Sightsavers and our partner the College of Ophthalmology and Allied Vision Sciences (COAVS) to be part of a pilot project that uses the SAFE strategy (Surgery, Antibiotics, Face washing and Environmental hygiene) to tackle the disease.

The head of the village, or 'Nazim', Ejaz Virk explains: "My village was once in the worst condition. There were heaps of garbage everywhere with lots of flies and mosquitoes. Only 10-15 per cent of households had indoor latrine facilities. Since I am the Nazim, I felt a great responsibility towards the village. One day a team from COAVS together with Sightsavers came to our village. We discussed our problems with them and they wanted to help us."

Community involvement

In order for the project to succeed it was vital for the whole community to be involved, and change was certainly not going to happen overnight. The entire process was dependant on everyone's participation, and COAVS held a series of meetings with the Nazim and village members to plan how to implement the changes, and overcome the challenges. Village health committees were set up to oversee the project and keep the community motivated.

Our partners then got to work treating people with trachoma, and other eye diseases. They also provided extensive training in eye health to the members of the health committees so that they could spread awareness throughout the community, and ran sessions on health education for teachers in Kausar's school.

Changes were also made to the infrastructure of the village. Working together with Sightsavers, COAVS provided clean filtered water, and mobilised the Nazim and local government to supply piped gas to the village and paved roads. Sample latrines were constructed to encourage villagers to build their own.

Things are looking up

As a result, life has changed for the better in Killa Virkan. People are healthier, eye diseases are greatly reduced, and the streets are clean. The stories of the people that live here demonstrate the real impact of the work.

Everyone we talk to has benefited in some way. Kausar talks about the changes she's seen: "Children in my class attend school regularly now with fresh faces and minds."

She too has been cured of trachoma and is no longer at risk of losing her sight. Critically, she also knows how to prevent the disease from returning.

"I am so proud of my modern village," she tells us before disappearing off to school".