How many Marys do we need?

At Sightsavers, we couldn’t carry out our life-changing work without your support. Beating preventable blindness is a big team effort.

Local volunteers play a crucial role in saving sight. Travelling from large towns to rural villages, they distribute vital medication to those who need it most.

For generations of people in Asubende in central Ghana, sight loss seemed inevitable. The fast-flowing Pru River puts locals at severe risk of contracting river blindness. Fortunately, Asubende now has a hero, and her name is Mary. She is a community volunteer, trained to dispense medication that kills the larvae that cause river blindness.

In rural communities, volunteers such as Mary go from door to door and from family to family. They use a dose pole to measure each person’s height and work out how many tablets they need, and a log book to track what each person has taken, to make sure everyone gets the right treatment at the right time. Mary looks after 89 people in Asubende, keeping dozens of families safe from the devastating effects of river blindness. If that’s what one Mary can achieve, how many volunteers like Mary would it take to protect 1,000 people, or 500 families? Of course communities come in all different shapes and sizes, and some communities will need more volunteers.

Find out with our clever slider, and see the impact your gift could have to protect communities across Ghana from river blindness.