Caroline Harper: What if we eliminated one of the world's oldest diseases?
Caroline Harper: E se eliminássemos uma das doenças mais antigas do mundo?
At Sightsavers, an international NGO, Caroline Harper leads efforts to eliminate avoidable blindness around the world and fight for equal rights. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
just for a moment,
instead of outwards,
para dentro, em vez de para fora,
the front of your eyeballs,
do seu globo ocular,
you went blind.
aos poucos e dolorosamente.
to a person who has trachoma.
com uma pessoa que tem tracoma.
from Zambia, he has trachoma.
da Zâmbia, tem tracoma.
he's going to go blind.
ele vai ficar cego.
that's passed from person to person
transmitida de pessoa para pessoa
will scar your eyelids
vai escoriar suas pálpebras,
and they turn inside out.
e viram de dentro para fora.
the contact with children.
em lugares como a Etiópia,
in places like Ethiopia
like this around their necks,
penduradas no pescoço,
to pluck out their eyelashes.
temporary respite,
um alívio temporário,
more vicious than before.
mais nocivos do que antes.
people in the world
no mundo estão cegas
because of trachoma.
por causa do tracoma.
as many as 200 million people
até 200 milhões de pessoas
of a wall of a tomb in Northern Sudan.
de um túmulo no norte do Sudão.
in a very remote village,
numa aldeia muito remota,
to take us down into a little tomb.
pra nos levar a um pequeno túmulo.
there are tweezers next to it.
do you think that's trachoma?"
você acha que é tracoma?"
to the British Museum,
ao Museu Britânico,
this is trachoma.
were painting pictures of trachoma
do tracoma nas paredes de seus túmulos.
in that area today.
endêmica naquela área hoje.
we know how to stop it.
como impedir isso.
community have all come together
do tracoma tenha se reunido
that's not always the case
na minha experiência no mundo das ONGs.
for Trachoma Control.
for Trachoma Control.
a strategy to fight it.
uma estratégia para combatê-lo.
by the World Health Organization.
Organização Mundial de Saúde.
para o sentido correto.
in somebody's front porch, if need be.
na varanda da casa, se for necessário.
to be transported to the port in-country.
sejam transportados para o porto no país.
of community volunteers
de voluntários da comunidade
with all that complex logistics.
com toda essa logística complexa.
has a pole like this.
recebe uma vareta como esta.
different colors,
com cores diferentes,
you should give somebody,
devemos dar a alguém
lavar o rosto.
in the UK and in the US.
no Reino Unido e nos EUA.
was a real problem in Georgia
era um grande problema na Geórgia
hospital de olhos, Moorfields,
eye hospital, Moorfields,
a importância de lavarem o rosto delas.
how important it is to wash their faces.
"environment", meio ambiente,
a construir latrinas,
build latrines,
seus animais de seus aposentos
their animals from their living quarters
liderou um programa incrível
Sightsavers led an incredible program
de Mapeamento do Tracoma.
Mapping Project.
a ir de distrito a distrito
to go district by district,
de mais de 2,5 milhões de pessoas.
of over two and a half million people.
para baixar os dados.
in order to download the data.
tinham problemas com o tracoma.
had a problem with trachoma.
"Esta estratégia funciona mesmo?"
"Well, does this strategy actually work?"
que fizemos até agora.
that we've made to date.
já ter eliminado o tracoma,
they've already eliminated trachoma,
de serem validados pela OMS.
or are in the process of
have the money they need,
para eliminar o tracoma.
to eliminate trachoma.
não têm financiamento suficiente.
they don't have enough funding.
a menos que consigam mais fundos.
unless they get more.
o progresso feito até agora possa parar.
that the progress to date may stall.
com os caras do projeto Audacious,
to the Audacious ideas guys,
nos próximos quatro ou cinco anos
over the next four or five years
that we can eliminate trachoma
o maior ônus da doença:
the highest burden of the disease,
em doação de medicamentos.
billion dollars' worth of donated drugs.
o impacto que teremos.
the impact that we'll have --
estão indo para o verde.
na Etiópia e na Nigéria.
in Ethiopia and Nigeria.
ainda estão em vermelho.
that are still red.
which are in conflict --
onde é muito difícil trabalhar.
where it's very difficult to work.
a estratégia e o mapa.
the strategy and the map.
com os governos também
with the governments
que nosso programa seja coordenado
that our program is coordinated
de controle de doenças,
se pudéssemos fazer isso?
if we could do this?
no mundo inteiro.
from the whole world.
só quero compartilhar com vocês
I just want to share with you
da Sightsavers, o Sir John Wilson.
the founder of Sightsavers,
num país inteiro,
for the whole country,
this is a devastating disease
esta é uma doença devastadora
of individual people.
for as long as she could remember.
ela fez a cirurgia.
she'd had the operation.
transformado a vida dela.
transformed her life.
e ela ficou livre da dor.
and she was free of pain.
com a história dela.
not to be moved by her story.
fique cego em agonia.
to go blind in agony anymore.
intratáveis neste mundo,
intractable problems in this world.
livre do medo do tracoma.
free from the fear of trachoma.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Caroline Harper - Advocate for visually impaired peopleAt Sightsavers, an international NGO, Caroline Harper leads efforts to eliminate avoidable blindness around the world and fight for equal rights.
Why you should listen
Dr. Caroline Harper's ultimate goal is to see herself out of a job. She runs Sightsavers, an organization with global offices that strives to eliminate avoidable blindness and ensure that people with disabilities have equal rights. Up to 75 percent of sight loss can be cured or prevented, and her team hopes to achieve their goals so spectacularly that the organization is no longer needed.
Harper worked in the gas industry until 2002, before co-founding a management business that specialized on turnaround sales of energy companies. But during what she describes as a mid-life gap year, she visited a number of developing countries and felt drawn to international development. "My own family has a lot of blindness, so the mission of Sightsavers really resonated for me," she said. "I have now been its CEO for 13 years, and every year something more incredible happens. The best moments are when I visit some of the countries where we work, sit with people in their communities and realize that what we do has a massive impact. I am so lucky."
Harper is a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for her work to protect the sight of people in developing countries. Sightsavers works with a range of partners and is supported by organizations such as The Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust and UK aid through the UK government's Department for International Development.
Caroline Harper | Speaker | TED.com