Saving Sight and Lives with Micro but Mighty Vitamin A
Vitamin A is a micronutrient that is critical to children’s growing bodies and brains. A single capsule of vitamin A – at a little more than $1 each – given to children twice a year until their fifth birthday can literally save their sight and lives. However, vitamin A-rich foods are also often either not […]
3 Things I’m Optimistic About in 2024
Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence. Helen Keller On January 1st, I stepped into some very big shoes as Helen Keller Intl’s new President and Chief Executive Officer. Together, we are 20 countries strong, helping more than 70 million children and family members create lasting […]
Improving Vision Care in Cameroon
More than 26 million children and adults in Africa are living with some form of visual impairment. As many as 15 percent of these experience vision loss because of common refractive errors, such as near-sightedness or astigmatism, which can be corrected with a simple pair of eyeglasses. Although a majority of people with refractive error […]
Preventing Vision Loss from Diabetic Retinopathy in Bangladesh
Nasima Khatun’s vision had been deteriorating for years. It had gotten so bad she was unable to recognize the faces of people she knew from a distance. Then one morning, the vision in her right eye suddenly became obscured by a what looked like a red cloud. The 41-year-old first went to a local doctor […]
Looking Bravely: Eliminating Blinding Trachoma in Mali
We recently spoke with Benoit Dembélé who is our Regional Technical Advisor for Neglected Tropical Diseases in West Africa. Benoit helps Helen Keller Intl’s teams across Africa ensure quality treatment to prevent and eliminate neglected tropical diseases. Most recently, Benoit and his team worked alongside the Malian government and partners The Carter Center and Sightsavers […]
Building Brighter Futures by Saving Sight
By the time she was six years old, Treasure Winner Mafau Azemafack’s family had already fled violence three times. Originally from Fontem in Cameroon’s South West region, Treasure Winner, her parents, and three siblings eventually settled on Dschang, in the country’s West region. During this time, Treasure Winner began to experience headaches, but moving so […]
Sweet Potatoes: Nutrition, Economic Security, and Inspiration
In her village in west central Burkina Faso, 34-year-old Kacoara Dahourou, a mother of four, knows firsthand the hardships of financial insecurity and hunger. Growing nutritious foods in a region that receives little rain – and finding affordable foods close to home – has long been a challenge for her. She also harbors a lingering fear that […]
How Baking Bread is Changing Lives: The Success of Sweet Potatoes
Five years ago, a difficult economic situation forced Thaimu Banugura to leave his hometown, Jaiama Nimikoro Kono, in the Eastern Province of Sierra Leone. Despite having completed his West African Certificate Exams to graduate from secondary school, Thaimu struggled to find work in his new home of Makeni in Sierra Leone’s Northern Province, and he […]
Empowering Mothers: Transforming Nutrition in Rural Communities in Sierra Leone
In rural communities across Sierra Leone, limited access to nutritious and diverse food has been a constant concern. 33-year-old Mariama Koroma knows this reality all too well. A farmer and single mother of three children, Mariama lives in Rogbere village in Tonkolili, Sierra Leone’s northern province. Like many other mothers in her community, she has […]
Women at the heart of our work
Women are the cornerstones of many families. They oversee home life — raising the children, preparing meals, even fetching water — and they bear responsibility for part, if not all, of their families’ livelihoods. In times of struggle, women often put others’ needs ahead of their own. In many ways, women are society’s glue: they […]
