What if we eliminated one of the world's oldest diseases? | Caroline Harper

Translator: Nelson Simfukwe Reviewer: Joachim Mangilima

I'd like you to imagine, just for a moment,

Ningependa utafakari, kwa muda mfupi,

that your eyelashes grew inwards instead of outwards,

Kuwa kope zako zinakua kuingia ndani badala ya nje,

so that every time you blinked,

Kwa hiyo kila wakati ukipepesa macho,

they would scrape the front of your eyeballs,

Zinakwaruza mtoto wa jicho

damaging the corneas,

zikiharibu chamba cha jicho

so that slowly and painfully, you went blind.

Kwa hiyo taratibu na kwa maumivu makali unakuwa kipofu.

Well, that's what happens to a person who has trachoma.

Hivyo ndivyo inavyotokea kwa mtu mwenye ugonjwa wa trakoma

Now, this little boy here, Pamelo, from Zambia, he has trachoma.

Huyu mvulana hapa, Pamelo kutoka Zambia ana trakoma

And if we don't do anything, he's going to go blind.

Kama hatutafanya chochote, atakuwa kipofu

Trachoma is a curious disease.

Trakoma ni ugonjwa unaotibika

It's a bacterial infection that's passed from person to person

Ni maambukizi ya bakteria yanayotoka kwa mtu mmoja kwenda kwa mwingine

and by flies.

yanayosambazwa na nzi.

The repeated infection will scar your eyelids

Maambukizi ya mara kwa mara yanasababisha makovu katika kope zako

so that they contract and they turn inside out.

inasababisha kusinyaa na kope kugeuka ndani nje.

It particularly affects women,

Huathiri sana wanawake.

because they have the contact with children.

kwa sababu wanagusana na watoto.

So what you'll often see in places like Ethiopia

Kwa hiyo utachokiona katika sehemu kama Ethiopia

are girls who have tweezers like this around their necks,

ni wasichana walio na koleo kama hii katika shingo zao,

and they use them to pluck out their eyelashes.

na wanazitumia kuchomoa kope zao.

But of course, that only gives them temporary respite,

Lakini hata hivyo, inawapa nafuu ya muda mfupi tu,

because they just grow back more vicious than before.

kwa sababu zinakuwa tena kwa kasi ya haraka sana kuliko mwanzo.

There are around two million people in the world

Kuna watu takribani milioni mbili duniani

who are blind or visually impaired because of trachoma.

ambao ni wapofu au wana uono hafifu kwa sababu ya trakoma.

And we believe there may be as many as 200 million people

Na tunaamini wanaweza kuwepo wengi zaidi hadi watu milioni 200

who are at risk.

ambao wapo katika hatari.

Now, it's a very old disease.

Sasa, ni ugonjwa mkongwe sana.

What you can see is a photo of a wall of a tomb in Northern Sudan.

Unachoona ni picha ya ukuta wa kaburi huko Sudani Kaskazini.

A colleague and I were traveling in a very remote village,

Mimi na rafiki tulikuwa tukisafiri vijiji vya mbali,

and we asked an old man to take us down into a little tomb.

na tukamuomba mzee mmoja kutupeleka kwenye kaburi dogo.

Now, on the wall, we saw two eyes.

Sasa, kwenye ukuta, tuliona macho mawili.

One is crying,

Moja likitoa machozi,

and you can see there are tweezers next to it.

na unaweza kuona kuna koleo pembeni yake.

Simon said to me, "My God, do you think that's trachoma?"

Simon aliniambia, "Mungu wangu, unadhani hiyo ni trakoma?"

So we sent this picture to the British Museum,

Kwa hiyo tuliituma hii picha kwenye makumbusho ya Uingereza,

and they confirmed that, yes, this is trachoma.

na walithibitisha kwamba, ndiyo, hii ni trakoma.

So, thousands of years ago,

Hivyo, maelfu ya miaka iliyopita,

the ancient Nubians were painting pictures of trachoma

wana wa kale wa Kinubia walikuwa wakichora picha za trakoma

on the walls of their tomb.

kwenye kuta za makaburi yao.

And the tragedy is

Na cha kuhuzunisha ni

that disease is still rampant in that area today.

kwamba ugonjwa huu bado unaathiri eneo hilo mpaka leo.

And the crazy thing is, we know how to stop it.

Na jambo linaloudhi ni, tunajua namna ya kuzuia ugonjwa.

And what's great is that the trachoma community have all come together

Na jambo zuri ni kwamba jamii zote zenye tatizo la trakoma zimeungana pamoja

to pool their efforts.

kushirikisha juhudi zao.

We don't compete; we collaborate.

Hatushindani; tunashirikiana.

I have to tell you, that's not always the case

Nataka nikwambie, sio suala muda wote

in my experience in the NGO world.

katika uzoefu wangu wa dunia ya taasisi zisizo za kiserikali.

We've created something

Tumeunda taasisi

called the International Coalition for Trachoma Control.

inaitwa International Coalition for Trachoma Control.(Muungano wa Kimataifa wa Kuzuia Trakoma)

And together, we've developed a strategy to fight it.

Na pamoja, tumeweka mkakati wa kupambana na trakoma.

This strategy is called the SAFE strategy,

Huuna mkakati unaitwa mkakati wa SAFE,

and it's been approved by the World Health Organization.

na umethibitishwa na Shirika la Afya Duniani.

The "S" stands for "surgery."

"S" inamaanisha "surgery"(upasuaji)

It's very straightforward procedure

Ni utaratibu rahisi wa mara moja

to turn the eyelids back the right way.

kurekebisha kope katika hali yake ya kawaida.

We train nurses to do it,

Tunawafundisha manesi kufanya huu upasuaji,

and they use local anesthetics.

na wanatumia ganzi za kawaida.

And as you can see, you can do it in somebody's front porch, if need be.

Na kama unavyoweza kuona, unaweza ukaufanyia kwenye kibaraza cha mwenye nyumba, kama inahitajika.

Then "A" stands for "antibiotics."

Kisha "A" inamaanisha "antibiotics"(dawa viuavijasumu).

These are donated by Pfizer,

Hizi zinatolewa kama msaada na Pfizer,

who also pay for those drugs to be transported to the port in-country.

ambae analipia kwa ajili ya kusafirisha hizo dawa kwenye bandari ya nchi husika.

From there, they're taken to the villages,

Kutokea pale, zinapelekwa vijijini,

where hundreds of thousands of community volunteers

ambapo mamia ya maelfu ya wanajamii wanaojitolea

will distribute those drugs to the people.

husambaza dawa hizo kwa watu.

Now, we train those volunteers,

Sasa, huwa tunawafundisha wanaojitolea,

and we also help the ministries with all that complex logistics.

na pia tunasaidia wizara katika namna nzima ya kuendesha zoezi.

And every one of those volunteers has a pole like this.

Na kila mtu anaejitolea ana mlingoti kama huu.

It's called a "dose pole."

Unaitwa "mlingoti wa tiba."

This one's from Cameroon.

Huu umetokea Cameroon.

And you can see it's marked different colors,

Na unaweza kuona umewekewa alama zenye rangi mbalimbali,

and you can tell how many pills you should give somebody,

na unaweza jua ni vidonge vingapi unaweza mpatia mgonjwa.

based on how tall they are.

kulingana na kimo chao.

"F" stands for "face washing."

"F" inamaanisha "face washing"(kuosha uso).

Now, we used to have trachoma in the UK and in the US.

Sasa, tuliwahi kuwa na trakoma katika nchi za Marekani na Uingereza.

In fact, President Carter,

Katika uhalisia, Rais Carter,

he talks about how trachoma was a real problem in Georgia

anaongelea namna gani trakoma ilikuwa ni tatizo kubwa maeneo ya Georgia

when he was a little boy.

alipokuwa mdogo.

And in the UK, the famous eye hospital, Moorfields,

Na Uingereza, hospitali maarufu ya macho, Moorfields,

was originally a trachoma hospital.

hapo mwanzo ilikuwa ni hospitali ya trakoma.

What we do is teach kids like this how important it is to wash their faces.

Tunachofanya ni kufundisha watoto kwamba ni muhimu kuosha nyuso zao.

And finally, "E" stands for "environment,"

Na mwisho, "E" inamaanisha "environment"(mazingira),

where we help the communities build latrines,

ambapo tunasaidia jamii kujenga vyoo,

and we teach them to separate their animals from their living quarters

na tunawafundisha kuwatenganisha wanyama wao mbali na nyumba wanapoishi

in order to reduce the fly population.

kwa ajili ya kupunguza mazalia ya nzi.

So we know how to tackle the disease.

Kwa hiyo tunafahamu namna ya kuushinda ugonjwa.

But we need to know where it is.

Lakini tunahitaji kujua upo wapi.

And we do,

Na tunafahamu,

because a few years ago, Sightsavers led an incredible program

Kwa sababu miaka michache iliyopita, taasisi ya Sightsavers waliongoza zoezi bora sana

called the Global Trachoma Mapping Project.

liitwalo the Global Trachoma Mapping Project(Ramani ya Dunia ya Trakoma).

It took us three years,

Ilituchukua miaka mitatu,

but we went through 29 countries,

na tulitembea katika nchi 29,

and we taught local health workers to go district by district,

na tuliwafundisha watumishi wa afya kutembelea wilaya baada ya wilaya,

and they examined the eyelids of over two and a half million people.

na walichunguza kope za watu zaidi ya milioni mbili na nusu,

And they used Android phones in order to download the data.

na walitumia simu za Android kwa ajili ya kupakua taarifa.

And from that, we were able to build a map

Na kuanzia hapo, tuliweza kutengeneza ramani

that showed us where the disease was.

inayoonyesha wapi ugonjwa ulipo.

Now, this is a very high-level map

Sasa, hii ni ramani ya ngazi ya juu

that shows you which countries had a problem with trachoma.

ambayo inaonyesha nchi gani zina tatizo la trakoma.

And you may ask me, "Well, does this strategy actually work?"

Na unaweza kuniuliza, "Sasa, mkakati huu unafanya kazi kweli?"

Yes, it does.

Ndiyo, unafanya kazi.

This map shows you the progress that we've made to date.

Hii ramani inaonyesha hatua tulizopiga mpaka sasa.

The green countries believe they've already eliminated trachoma,

Nchi za kijani zinaamini kwamba zimeshaondoa trakoma,

and they have either been through or are in the process of

na washapata au wapo katika hatua za

having that validated by the WHO.

kupata uthibitisho wa kutokomeza ugonjwa toka kwa WHO.

Countries in yellow have the money they need,

Nchi za njano wana fedha wanazohitaji,

they have the resources to eliminate trachoma.

wana rasilimali kwa ajili ya kuondoa trakoma.

And some of them are really nearly there.

Na baadhi ya wanakaribia

But the red countries, they don't have enough funding.

Lakini nchi nyekundu, hawana fedha za kutosha.

They cannot eliminate trachoma unless they get more.

Hawawezi kuondoa trakoma kama wasipopata fedha zaidi.

And we're quite concerned, though, that the progress to date may stall.

Na tunaona kwamba unatuhusu, ingawa, muendelezo umekwama mpaka sasa.

So when we were talking to the Audacious ideas guys,

Kwa hiyo tulivyokuwa tukiongelea kuhusu mradi wa Audacious,

we asked ourselves:

tulijiuliza maswali:

If we really, really pushed ourselves over the next four or five years

Kama kweli, tukiweza kujisukuma ndani ya miaka minne au mitano ijayo

and we had the money,

na tukawa na fedha,

what do we think we could achieve?

tunadhani tunaweza fanikisha mambo gani?

Well, we believe that we can eliminate trachoma

Hata hivyo, tunaamini kwamba tunaweza kuondoa trakoma

in 12 African countries

katika nchi 12 za Kiafrika

and across the Americas

na katika nchi za America

and all across the Pacific.

na kote katika Pacific.

And we can make significant progress

Na tunaweza fanya mabadiliko makubwa

in two countries which have the highest burden of the disease,

katika nchi mbili ambazo zina mzigo wa magonjwa,

which is Ethiopia and Nigeria.

ambazo ni Ethiopia na Nigeria.

And in doing all of that,

Katika kufanya hayo yote,

we can leverage more than two billion dollars' worth of donated drugs.

tunaweza kupata zaidi ya dawa zenye thamani ya kiasi cha dola za Kimarekani bilioni mbili(shilingi za Kitanzania takribani trilioni nne)

(Applause)

(Makofi)

Now, this map here shows you the impact that we'll have --

Sasa, hii ramani inakuonyesha mafanikio tutayopata --

look how many countries are going green.

angalia nchi ngapi zinazoelekea kuwa kijani.

And there, you can see progress in Ethiopia and Nigeria.

Na hapo, utaweza kuona maendeleo katika nchi za Ethiopia na Nigeria.

Now, yes, there are some countries that are still red.

Sasa, bado kuna nchi ambazo ni nyekundu.

These are mainly countries which are in conflict --

Hizi ni nchi ambazo zipo katika migogoro --

places like Yemen, South Sudan -- where it's very difficult to work.

sehemu kama Yemen, Sudani Kusini -- ambapo ni ngumu kufanya kazi.

So, we have the team, the strategy and the map.

Kwa hiyo, tuna timu, mkakati na ramani.

And we also have the relationships with the governments

Na pia tuna mahusiano na serikali

so that we can make sure that our program is coordinated

kwa hiyo tunaweza kuhakikisha kwamba zoezi linaunganishwa

with other disease-control programs,

na mazoezi mengine yanayohusiana na kupambana na magonjwa,

so that we can be efficient.

ili kuongeza ufanisi zaidi.

Wouldn't it be amazing if we could do this?

Haitakuwa nzuri kama tutaweza kufanya hivi?

We'd have trachoma on the run.

Tuna ugonjwa wa trakoma bado.

We would be on the home straight

Tungeweza kuwepo nyumbani

to eliminate this disease from the whole world.

na kuweza kuondoa ugonjwa huu duniani kote.

But before I finish, I just want to share with you

Lakini kabla sijamaliza, nataka kuwashirikisha

some words from the founder of Sightsavers,

maneno baadhi kutoka kwa muanzilishi wa taasisi ya Sightsavers

a guy called Sir John Wilson.

bwana mmoja anayeitwa Sir John Wilson

Now, he was blinded at the age of 12.

Sasa, alipata upofu akiwa na miaka 12.

And he said,

Na alisema,

"People don't go blind by the million.

"Watu hawapati upofu wakiwa mamilioni.

They go blind one by one."

Wanapata upofu mmoja kwa mmoja."

And in the excitement of being able to say

Na shauku ya kuweza kusema kwamba

we've got rid of trachoma for the whole country,

tumeweza kuondokana na trakoma kwa nchi nzima,

let's not forget that, actually, this is a devastating disease

tusisahau ya kwamba, kwa uhalisia, hii ugonjwa mbaya sana

that destroys the lives of individual people.

ambao unaharibu maisha ya watu wengi.

People like Twiba.

Watu kama Twiba.

Now, I met Twiba last year in Tanzania.

Sasa, nilikutana na Twiba mwaka jana nchini Tanzania.

She had had trachoma for as long as she could remember.

Alikuwa na trakoma katika muda wote anaoweza kukumbuka.

And a couple of months before I met her, she'd had the operation.

Na miaka kadhaa kabla sijaonana nae, alifanyiwa upasuaji.

It's no exaggeration to say

Sio kitu cha kukuza kusema

that this had totally transformed her life.

kwamba upasuaji huu umebadili maisha yake moja kwa moja.

We'd saved the sight that she had left, and she was free of pain.

Tumeokoa uono, na ameondokana na maumivu,

She could sleep.

Anaweza kulala.

She could work, she could socialize.

Anaweza kufanya kazi, na pia kujumuika na wenzake.

And she said to me,

Na aliniambia,

"I have my life back."

"Nimerudishiwa maisha yangu tena."

And it was impossible not to be moved by her story.

Na ni vigumu kutohamasika kutokana na hadithi ya maisha yake.

But there are so many Twibas.

Lakini wengi waliopo kama Twiba.

I want to find all the Twibas,

Nataka niwatafute watu wote kama Twiba,

and I don't want anyone to go blind in agony anymore.

na sitaki mtu yoyote awe mpofu na mwenye maumivu tena.

Now, you know, there are so many intractable problems in this world.

Sasa, unajua, kuna matatizo mengi sana duniani ambayo ni magumu kutatua.

But this is not one of them.

Lakini hili siyo mojawapo.

This is something that we can solve.

Hili ni tatizo ambalo tunaweza kulitatua.

And we can ensure

Na tunaweza hakikisha

that kids like this can grow up free from the fear of trachoma.

kwamba watoto kama hawa wanakua katika mazingira yasiyo na trakoma.

So, for the sake of kids like this,

Kwa hivyo, kwa ajili ya watoto kama hawa,

and for the sake of people like Twiba,

na kwa ajili ya watu kama Twiba,

let's get rid of trachoma.

tuondokane na trakoma.

Do you think we can?

Unadhani tunaweza?

Well, yeah, if we really, really want to.

Ndiyo, kama kweli tunataka.

Yes, we can.

Ndiyo tunaweza.

So thank you.

Asante!

(Applause)

(Makofi)