In Senegal, the fly collectors take the stage as our community celebrates the progress towards eliminating river blindness
By Dr. Solomon Zewdu, CEO of the END Fund
Last week in Youmoussa, a small town in southeast Senegal along the border with Guinea, the END Fund celebrated a huge milestone with a group of “fly catching volunteers” who have worked for nearly two decades to help the country verify that it has eliminated river blindness, a river borne parasitic disease.
The atmosphere in Youmoussa was one of closeness, the kind where you have been friends or allies forever. The entire town came out to watch an END Fund commissioned award winning documentary about these volunteers, The Fly Collectors, through the support of the donors community of the Reaching the Last Mile Fund 1.0. The warmth of the reception and the effortless connection felt like a reunion of people who have been there for each other through the worst.
The documentary has been touring the world for more than a year, screening at the Dublin Independent Film Festival, Africa International Film Festival and the Hampton International Film Festival. But now, it was in front of the people who have lived it.
River blindness is a river born parasitic disease spread by the black fly that causes un-controllable itching and irreversible blindness if left untreated. The program to eliminate the disease in Senegal first started in 1989 when Merck donated the drug ivermectin to conduct a mass drug administration. These mass treatment campaigns were effective at halting the spread and reducing the prevalence. More recently, teams of volunteers helped trap more than 250,000 flies to test for the parasite. The job of the fly collector is to capture small black flies into a glass tube by hand while posing for hours as bait on the river banks. The glass tubes are sent to a lab to be tested for the presence of the parasite that causes onchocerciasis which is the only way to prove that infection is not circulating in that region – “flies don’t lie”. If the flies did not have the parasite, it would prove that the disease was no longer being transmitted.
Multiple generations came together to honor the fly collector’s dedicated work —babies crawling, teenagers laughing, elders remembering decades at the river. Those children will never know river blindness. That is a gift that keeps on giving.
The volunteers didn’t ask for anything beyond being trained when approached with the opportunity to change their unfortunate circumstances and rid the future generation to assure their community and future generation to live free of this ancient disease. Their devotion is humbling and the grounding truth that keeps the END fund community of donors engaged.
A few days earlier, we screened the same documentary in Dakar alongside the government partners to honor and connect the worlds of the volunteers with the international community working to support them.
Satine Ba, Saliou Touré, Souleymane Sagna, Mamadou Lamine Ba, the Fly Collectors of Youmoussa took center stage as honored guests, celebrated for their remarkable resilience and work.
“This film gives us the occasion to celebrate and call attention to the important role of the community in the fight against diseases and specifically river blindness,” explained Serine Mbaye, Secretary General of Senegal’s Ministry of Health and Social Action.
As we celebrate, we must also plan. Post-elimination is about discipline: stronger surveillance systems, cross-border collaboration, and a mindset that sees health security beyond national lines. That’s what will keep these wins from slipping away.
This bond of the community, the government and the regions with the international partners is critical because flies do not respect borders. With the right wind condition the flies carrying river blindness can travel up to 400km. It is not sufficient to eliminate river blindness in one country and neglect it in another.
We must ensure that endemic countries continue to have access to the tools, treatment and systems, not only to sustain progress but to achieve full elimination. That cross border collaboration is guaranteed by working together. The END fund and its community of donors’ philanthropic collaborative can offer the unique, nimble support needed to sustain a resilient ecosystem for elimination and post elimination comprehensive multi disease regional surveillance systems equipped to achieve lasting impact on millions of lives.
Witnessing disease elimination is sobering, and humbling. Donors, governments, drug companies are like the indispensable instruments in an orchestra. The symphony of elimination comes alive when communities are the conductors.
