A sigh of relief
For the second year Terre des Hommes is implementing emergency response in Northeast Nigeria, an area heavily affected by Boko Haram’s armed activity. The conflict is affecting thousands of civilians, threatened by massive and widespread abuse against civilians including killings, rape and other sexual violence, abduction, child recruitment, and family separation.
The life of Joy, a 3 years-old boy who lives in Gelmery Camp (Nigeria) suddenly changed when he was playing with his mates and suffered an accidental eye injury.
Joy’s caregivers couldn’t afford to take him to a hospital and the risk of developing a vision-threatening condition was huge.
About 3% of all emergency cases are due to eye injuries. Although corneal injury can occur at all ages, children are those most at risk when they scratch their eyes unintentionally with untrimmed fingernails, pencils, pens, or other pointed objects.
Terre des Hommes referred Joy to a hospital and he was admitted to the pediatric ward for four days and provided with first-line treatment and tests.
For the second year Terre des Hommes is implementing emergency response in Northeast Nigeria, an area heavily affected by Boko Haram’s armed activity. The conflict is affecting thousands of civilians, threatened by massive and widespread abuse against civilians including killings, rape and other sexual violence, abduction, child recruitment, and family separation.
Children are among the particularly vulnerable groups that suffer the most. Now, many people are living within camps of displaced persons. In 2020 Terre des Hommes provided affected people with water, sanitation and health services, including natal education, cholera/ malaria/ measles awareness, psychosocial support to the most vulnerable children and caregivers. A new phase in 2021 has already started from 1st January.
Thanks to this project, more than 500 beneficiaries with complicated cases that could not be treated at the Primary Health Care level were provided with vouchers for healthcare services.
Soon, the physicians realized that Joy needed an intervention and a corneal repair was conducted and paid by the Cash for Health Project run by Terre des Hommes.
The surgery was successful and Joy can see again. Joy’s caregiver was counselled on proper supervision during play activities to avoid future recurrence.