Fortunately, trachoma is one of the few neglected tropical diseases with an effective strategy for global elimination by 2020.  ITI provided the technical and financial support to develop Ethiopia’s first National Five-Year Strategic Plan for Trachoma Control, and an essential part of that plan is to build innovative partnerships to implement the World Health Organization (WHO)-recommended SAFE strategy (Surgery, Antibiotics, Facial cleanliness, and Environmental improvements.  Established international NGOs like The Carter Center, and ORBIS International are working with ITI on each of these SAFE elements, but indigenous NGOs in the different regions of Ethiopia are critical if we are to meet people’s needs at the local level. 

Partner: GTM

Based 135 kilometers southeast of the capital city of Addis Ababa, Grarbet Tehadisso Mahber (GTM) has expanded its work in treating patients with neurological conditions and eye diseases by implementing the complete SAFE  strategy for trachoma control in four districts of Silti and Gurage Zone in the Southern Nations & Nationalities Region (SNNPR). GTM is planning to expand the implementation of the SAFE strategy to the Oromia region of central Ethiopia. This region has one of the highest levels of infections in the country, with active trachoma exceeding 40% in one to nine-years-old children.  ITI has arranged for Pfizer-donated Zithromax to be supplied to GTM, which then distributes it and, at the same time, provides potable water and sanitation in the Silti and Gurage zones of SNNPR.  To date, GTM has reached 416,336 people with antibiotics to treat active infections and is providing people with access to clean water and sanitation, which are the F (facial cleanliness) and E (environmental improvement) elements of SAFE and are necessary for successful control of trachoma. In 2006, 395,791 doses of Zithromax were distributed in the four districts of the Silti and Gurage Zones of SNNPR.

New Donor: Light for the World, Tigay Region
Another key partner in Ethiopia is the Austrian NGO, Light for the World (LfW), which has committed 75,000 Euros to support Zithromax distribution in six districts of the Tigray region in northern Ethiopia through the efforts of ITI. Over a quarter of the children aged one to nine-years-old in this region have active trachoma infections. ITI is working in close cooperation with LfW and the Tigray Regional Health Bureau to make sure that 765,000 people in the six districts of Tigray receive these essential antibiotic treatments. The 2007 regional goal is to complete 10,000 sight-saving surgeries for the advanced trachoma cases.

ITI was itself founded nearly 10 years ago by a public-private partnership to become the world’s first and only leading international non-governmental organization dedicated solely to the elimination of blinding trachoma.  That same spirit of partnership continues to inform all of our work and is clearly proving its effectiveness in fighting the disease in Ethiopia.