HELEN KELLER INTERNATIONAL

Neglected tropical diseases including blinding trachoma, lymphatic filariasis, river blindness, schistosomiasis, and intestinal worms impact more than 1 billion people globally. These mainly parasitic, viral, or bacterial diseases that can cause a host of painful physical disabilities, lost economic opportunities, and social stigma are most prevalent in lower income countries that lack adequate healthcare. Helen keller intl partners with ministries of health, local leaders, and communities to prevent, treat, and eliminate these neglected diseases. A cornerstone of the work involves mass drug administration events where community health workers distribute critical medications to both treat and curb the spread of these diseases. During 2024 alone, we worked with ministries of health to treat more than 35 million individuals for at least one of these five diseases in seven african countries (burkina faso, cameroon, guinea, mali, niger, nigeria and sierra leone), contributing greatly to national efforts towards their control and elimination. Helen keller is also involved in morbidity management and disability prevention related specifically to trachoma and lymphatic filariasis and is working to build the capacity of national government and partner organizations in this area in five african countries (mali, niger, nigeria, sierra leone and tanzania). In 2024, we screened close to 7,494 individuals for trachoma and supported surgery for over 2,400 people affected by a blinding condition resulting from trachoma (trichiasis). The combination of these helen keller-supported efforts has led to the great success of mali eliminating trachoma as a public health problem in 2023; other countries continue to make progress in this direction with trachoma, lymphatic filariasis and onchocerciasis.