Confronting sight loss
The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation works to prevent blindness and empower those facing the challenges of visual impairment.
Eliminating trachoma
Trachoma is a major cause of preventable blindness. This infectious eye disease typically affects people in impoverished communities lacking adequate access to clean water, sanitation and healthcare. If left untreated, trachoma leads to total blindness.
The World Health Organization recommends the SAFE strategy—encompassing Surgery, Antibiotics, Facial cleanliness and Environmental improvement—for preventing trachoma.
Over the years, Hilton Foundation funding has helped make it possible to implement various aspects of the SAFE strategy for preventing trachoma in Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mali, Mozambique, Nepal, Niger, Nigeria, Southern Sudan, Tanzania and Vietnam.
Cumulatively, the Foundation has provided more than $40 million toward reducing the spread of trachoma, including an ongoing grant of $15.3 million to the Carter Center and Helen Keller International. This is targeted at conducting trichiasis surgeries and facilitating improvements in sanitation and hygiene behavior in Mali, Niger, Southern Sudan and Tanzania. Our funds also supported the World Health Organization's development of a trachoma curriculum to encourage the teaching of health and hygiene behaviors to prevent trachoma. This curriculum is now integrated into the health education programs of numerous schools in trachoma-endemic regions.
The Hilton Foundation is currently funding the Kilimanjaro Center for Community Ophthalmology's (as link http://www.kcco.net/index.html) two-year research and implementation project aimed at improving the delivery and outcomes of surgery for trichiasis (the advanced, blinding stage of trachoma).
The Hilton Foundation is also supporting the Community Eye Health Journal (as link http://www.cehjournal.org/), which is published four times per year by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and targets community eye health workers working on the front line to combat trachoma and other causes of preventable blindness.
A history of trachoma prevention
Our earlier efforts toward preventing trachoma include Foundation support for World Vision to provide trachoma treatment and education in Ethiopia, and support for the addition of trachoma prevention and treatment as part of the International Rescue Committee's healthcare efforts in Ethiopia. Our funds also supported the World Health Organization's development of a trachoma curriculum to encourage the teaching of health and hygiene behaviors that can help prevent trachoma.
Resources
Improving education for blind children with multiple disabilities
Over the last two decades, the Foundation has provided more than $65 million in support to the Perkins School for the Blind, a world leader in education for children with deafblindness and visual impairment with multiple disabilities. This collaboration with Perkins represents one of the largest commitments in Hilton Foundation history, and includes a 1989 grant of $15 million to establish the Hilton-Perkins program.
One of the first programs to comprehensively address the educational and service needs of children with deafblindness or visual impairment with multiple disabilities and their families, the Hilton-Perkins program seeks to improve the lives of those affected by visual impairment by focusing on quality of education, training professionals and leaders in the field, empowering parents to advocate for additional resources, and working with governments on policies, legislation, and services that better address needs in this area.
The Hilton-Perkins program has provided available materials, training, professional development, and technical assistance to teachers and parents. It has promoted university-level special education programs, as well as braille literacy, including support of the distribution of Perkins Braillers (braille typewriters). Through partner organizations, the program has also delivered direct services to children and their families and has advocated for financial resources and policy change supportive of people in the deafblind and multiply disabled community.
Results
When the Hilton-Perkins program began, only eleven countries had any kind of program for children who were deafblind or visually impaired with multiple disabilities, with fewer than 250 children having access to these services. Today, the Hilton-Perkins program works with over 500 schools and programs in 65 countries to strengthen their capacity to provide quality educational services for 20,000 children and support for 4,000 of their family members each year.
The program has educated 200 international leaders in its Boston-based leadership program, and 10,000 teachers and administrators receive training on an annual basis. These combined efforts help to influence policies for special education in many countries and at the global level. The Hilton-Perkins program is recognized worldwide for its positive impact on education programs for this population.
Other projects
The Hilton Foundation has supported the programs of many other organizations working to improve the lives of the visually impaired and of the visually impaired who also face multiple disabilities. These projects have involved the American Foundation for the Blind, The Junior Blind of America, The National Association for Parents of Children with Visual Impairments (NAPVI), the National Statler Center for Careers in Hospitality Service at the Olmsted Center for Sight, and Therapeutic Living Centers for the Blind (TLC).