Caroline Harper: What if we eliminated one of the world's oldest diseases?
Caroline Harper: Et si nous éradiquions une des plus anciennes maladies au monde ?
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,
juste un instant,
instead of outwards,
et non à l'extérieur,
chaque clignement d'yeux,
the front of your eyeballs,
de vos globes oculaires,
you went blind.
et douloureusement, vous deveniez aveugle.
to a person who has trachoma.
à qui est atteint d'un trachome.
from Zambia, he has trachoma.
est atteint de trachome.
he's going to go blind.
that's passed from person to person
contagieuse, transmise par l'homme
will scar your eyelids
va abîmer vos paupières
and they turn inside out.
et se retourner vers l'intérieur.
the contact with children.
avec les enfants.
in places like Ethiopia
dans des pays comme l'Éthopie
like this around their necks,
comme celle-ci autour du cou
to pluck out their eyelashes.
pour arracher leurs cils.
temporary respite,
qu'un répit temporaire,
more vicious than before.
plus vicieux qu'auparavant.
people in the world
de personnes dans le monde
because of trachoma.
à cause du trachome.
as many as 200 million people
risquant de l'attraper.
of a wall of a tomb in Northern Sudan.
d'un tombeau dans le nord du Soudan.
in a very remote village,
dans un village très reculé.
to take us down into a little tomb.
de nous emmener dans un petit tombeau.
there are tweezers next to it.
des pinces juste à côté.
do you think that's trachoma?"
tu penses que c'est un trachome ? »
to the British Museum,
this is trachoma.
que c'était bien un trachome.
were painting pictures of trachoma
in that area today.
est toujours omniprésente
we know how to stop it.
comment y mettre un terme.
community have all come together
s'est réunie pour œuvrer ensemble.
mais de la collaboration.
that's not always the case
ce n'est pas toujours le cas
je peux en témoigner.
for Trachoma Control.
pour le contrôle du trachome.
a strategy to fight it.
une stratégie pour le combattre.
ou « sain » en anglais,
by the World Health Organization.
par l'Organisation mondiale de la santé.
dans le bon sens.
in somebody's front porch, if need be.
le faire à domicile, si nécessaire.
est pour « Antibiotiques ».
to be transported to the port in-country.
jusqu'au port d'entrée dans le pays.
jusqu'aux villages,
of community volunteers
de bénévoles communautaires
with all that complex logistics.
à organiser cette logistique complexe.
has a pole like this.
a un bâton comme celui-ci.
different colors,
qu'il y a plusieurs couleurs,
you should give somebody,
donner à quelqu'un
in the UK and in the US.
au Royaume-Uni et aux États-Unis.
was a real problem in Georgia
était un vrai problème en Géorgie
eye hospital, Moorfields,
l'hôpital d'ophtalmologie réputé
pour le trachome.
il est important de se laver la figure.
how important it is to wash their faces.
« Environnement ».
à construire des latrines,
build latrines,
avec des animaux dans leur maison,
their animals from their living quarters
a mené un programme incroyable :
Sightsavers led an incredible program
de cartographie du trachome.
Mapping Project.
sur place à aller, district par district,
to go district by district,
de deux millions et demi de personnes.
of over two and a half million people.
pour envoyer les données.
in order to download the data.
où se trouvait la maladie.
étaient atteints par le trachome.
had a problem with trachoma.
si cette stratégie fonctionne.
"Well, does this strategy actually work?"
que nous avons faits à ce jour.
that we've made to date.
avoir éliminé le trachome,
they've already eliminated trachoma,
ou est en train de valider.
or are in the process of
have the money they need,
pour éliminer le trachome.
to eliminate trachoma.
pas encore assez d'argent.
they don't have enough funding.
le trachome sans en obtenir plus.
unless they get more.
que les progrès ne stagnent.
that the progress to date may stall.
du projet TED « The Audacious Project »,
to the Audacious ideas guys,
pendant quatre ou cinq ans,
over the next four or five years
puvoir éliminer le trachome
that we can eliminate trachoma
des progrès significatifs
les plus touchés par la maladie :
the highest burden of the disease,
de dollars en médicaments.
billion dollars' worth of donated drugs.
l'impact que nous aurons.
the impact that we'll have --
en Éthiopie et au Nigeria.
in Ethiopia and Nigeria.
that are still red.
des pays en conflit --
which are in conflict --
où il est très difficile d'opérer.
where it's very difficult to work.
la stratégie et la carte.
the strategy and the map.
avec les gouvernements,
with the governments
que notre programme est coordonné
that our program is coordinated
de lutte contre les maladies,
extraordinaire d'y arriver ?
if we could do this?
en train de disparaître.
dans le monde entier.
from the whole world.
je voudrais partager avec vous
I just want to share with you
the founder of Sightsavers,
aveugles en masse,
le trachome dans tout le pays,
for the whole country,
c'est une maladie terrible
this is a devastating disease
of individual people.
l'an dernier en Tanzanie.
depuis toujours.
for as long as she could remember.
je ne la rencontre, elle a été opérée.
she'd had the operation.
transformed her life.
ce qui lui restait de sa vue
and she was free of pain.
de ne pas être émue par son histoire.
not to be moved by her story.
devienne aveugle en souffrant autant.
to go blind in agony anymore.
de problèmes insolubles dans le monde.
intractable problems in this world.
dans la peur du trachome.
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