MEDIA RELEASE
Embargoed 24/9/09 – 0600am AEST
Pre record interviews with Michael Caton available
Media Contact Julian Brophy 0408 276 749
Donate a Dunny campaign fights blindness in Africa
(Sydney, Sept 24, 2009) . . . Actor Michael Caton (the Castle, Packed to the Rafters) is asking fellow
Australians to “donate a dunny” and help wipe out unnecessary blindness in Africa. Caton launched the
Donate a Dunny campaign today on behalf of Operation Eyesight Universal, an international
development agency dedicated to the prevention and treatment of blindness in the developing world.
“Believe it or not, dunnies and blindness are directly connected,” says Caton. “Sanitation and safe water
are in short supply throughout Africa and that causes serious health problems, including a high rate of
unnecessary blindness.”
Trachoma, caused by bacterial infection, is the world’s leading cause of permanent blindness. It has
largely disappeared in developed countries but still plagues many African countries causing millions of
people immense pain, disability, and often loss of sight.
“Past efforts to deal with this problem focused on controlling the disease with antibiotics and treating the
painful trichiasis with lid surgery, only to see it return again and again,” says Caton. “We now know the
only way to permanently defeat this disease is to make sure people have access to sanitation and clean
water.”
“Unfortunately, a dunny is an unaffordable luxury for many people in Africa. Through this campaign,
we’re raising money to provide them with the supplies they need to construct their very own dunnies.”
The Donate a Dunny campaign will help support Operation Eyesight’s trachoma elimination projects in
Kenya and Zambia. Operation Eyesight is the only blindness organization implementing the World
Health Organisation’s full SAFE strategy to eliminate trachoma by drilling boreholes to provide clean
water and constructing latrines to prevent transmission of the bacteria by flies, in addition to dispensing
antibiotics and providing lid surgery.
SAFE includes Surgery to treat trichiasis (the painful late stage of the disease), Antibiotics to eliminate
infection, Face washing and hygiene promotion, and Environmental change including water wells and
dunnies to prevent re-infection.
To be effective, these ambitious projects require construction of thousands of dunnies, drilling hundreds
of boreholes, mass distribution of antibiotics and training thousands of people in hygiene and well
management.
“These projects are huge and costly,” says Jim O’Sullivan, Country Manager, Operation Eyesight
Australia. “But the benefits are enormous. In addition to preventing unnecessary blindness, the SAFE
strategy dramatically reduces other serious diseases, helps keep children in school and saves women
the need to walk many kilometers in search of surface water, which is unfit for human consumption.”
Operation Eyesight is working in close partnership with the governments of Kenya and Zambia and is a
member of the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness and Vision 2020.
Individuals and organisations wishing to support the Donate a Dunny campaign can donate online at
Rupert Myers Building, Gate 14 Barker Street. Sydney, New South Wales 2052 or call 1 800 701 193
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Julian Brophy
Lindsay O’Connor
0408 276 749
Head of International Media Operation Eyesight Universal
Phone: 0416 733 233
Operation Eyesight is an international development organisation dedicated to preventing and treating
blindness in low income countries for more than 45 years—primarily in south Asia and Africa. We help
local medical professionals provide blindness prevention programs and comprehensive, sustainable eye
care for the people of the world who can least afford it. Since 1963, Operation Eyesight has prevented
Global Blindness - Every five seconds, one person in our world goes blind and a child goes blind every
minute. More than 90 per cent of the world's blind live in developing countries, where day-to-day life is
already daunting and blindness is a direct threat to life. Over 75 per cent of this blindness is preventable
or treatable.
Trachoma is a disease of the eye caused by bacterial infection and is easily spread. Children are most
susceptible. Those afflicted by trachoma do not go blind instantly. The disease progresses gradually
until scarring from prolonged infection causes the eyelashes to turn inward and scratch the cornea,
leading slowly and painfully to complete blindness. In the developing world, more than 80 million people
are affected by trachoma with over 8 million suffering the late painful stage of the disease.
Sanitation: More than 1.2 billion people do not have even the most basic sanitation facilities.
Clean Water: More than 884 million people have no access to clean water.
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