Les Yeux de l'espoir
Bernard Surugue
1998 - 26 min - 35 mm - Couleur - France, Suisse

The 131 million inhabitants of 11 West African countries will enter the thrid millennium with a fabulous heritage : 25 million hectares of fertile land freed of a redoutable scourge, onchocerciasis or river blindness. This unprecedented success is the result of a scientific control method developed by French researchers at Orstom who also succeeded in mobilising the international community to organise a true "war machine" to attack the disease and misery.
Over a pierod of a quarter of a century, 50,000 kilometers of rivers will have been treated to halt the proliferation of tiny blackfly "simulium" that are the vectors of the parasite disease.
This international operation will have completed its mandate on 31 December 2002.
The cleansed valleys are becoming repopulated and agricultural and industrial activities are developing. This economic growth is accompanied by better surveillance of diseases and their transmission to humans.