CONQUERING RIVERBLINDNESS: United Front Against Riverblindness Board Chair Michele Tuck-Ponder, left and Executive Director Daniel Shungu look forward to their April 8 annual event featuring Nobel Prize winner William Campbell.

William Campbell, 2015 Nobel Prize winner in physiology or medicine for his work in developing Avermectin, the parent of Ivermectin, a medicine that has made possible the near eradication of river blindness, will be the featured speaker at the Princeton United Methodist Church on April 8, at an annual event to benefit the United Front Against Riverblindness (UFAR). 

Riverblindness is a debilitating disease that causes blindness in thousands of people in Africa and Latin America. This parasitic disease known as onchocerciasis, transmitted through the bite of a small black fly that breeds along river banks, has infected seven million people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), with 70,000 already blind from the disease.

But UFAR, a Princeton-based nonprofit organization, with Lawrenceville resident Daniel Shungu, Congolese by birth and a former Merck employee, at the helm and former Princeton Township mayor Michele Tuck-Ponder as Board Chair, is on its way to conquering riverblindness as a major public health problem in the DRC.

For more than 10 years UFAR has distributed Ivermectin in the DRC, and as a result of Mr. Campbell’s work the organization has recently expanded its mission to combat other neglected tropical diseases. “Dr. Campbell’s work has resulted in the tremendous alleviation of suffering in the DRC,” Mr. Shungu stated. “Without his discovery, generations of people would continue to suffer from premature blindness, crippling families, communities, and the nation.”

Ms. Tuck-Ponder discussed her involvement and the success of the organization since its founding 12 years ago. “We’ve all heard the phrase ‘think globally, work locally,’ and this is one of those rare opportunities to act locally and have a global impact. That is what I find exciting about being able to participate.”

In 2010 Ms. Tuck-Ponder traveled on a mission trip to the DRC with eight other members of the Princeton Church. “We went to the villages and met people in the president’s office,” she said. “We had an amazing, unforgettable experience, and the Church has continued to support the program.”

She continued, “I’m just a little cog in the organization, because the real work happens over in the DRC, and I’m so pleased that we have been able to do it in a way that is culturally sensitive and allows for self-determination and allows people to address their own issues. It’s especially exciting for me, since I’m African American, to be able to do something on that continent. It’s really very special.”

An Irish-American biologist and parasitologist, Mr. Campbell worked at the Merck Institute for Therapeutic Research from 1957 to 1990, and was a research fellow at Drew University, where he taught courses in parasitology and supervised undergraduate research from 1990 to 2010, when he retired. Currently a research fellow emeritus at Drew, Mr. Campbell lives in Massachusetts.

Ms. Tuck-Ponder explained some of the factors contributing to UFAR’s striking success. “We have partnerships with organizations all over the world,” she said, “because we’ve come up with a system that’s so effective in distributing medication in an orderly way so we can be accountable about who’s received what dose when. We’ve been able to do that because Dr. Shungo is from the DRC and understands how the villages work, what the culture is. Instead of forcing people to adjust to our culture, our method of distribution adjusts to their culture. Other organizations have come to us and said, ‘Can you distribute our medication as well?’”

She went on, “For example we visit the chief of the village, bring him gifts, talk to him, ask if we can distribute medications in that village. Then we ask him to appoint someone to be responsible for that distribution on an annual basis, because you have to take the medication every year for ten years. You can’t just come in from the outside, give them a bag of pills and say ‘hey, give this to everybody.’ That doesn’t work.”

Mr. Campbell, as quoted in The Irish Times on the occasion of his Nobel Prize in 2015, emphasized the importance of his partnerships in working to develop Avermectin. “The greatest challenge for science is to think globally, think simply, and act accordingly,” he said. “It would be disastrous to neglect the diseases of the developing world. One part of the world affects another part. We have a moral obligation to look after each other, but we’re also naturally obligated to look after our own needs. It has to be both.”

Mr. Campbell’s April 8 speech will begin at 5 p.m. in the United Methodist Church sanctuary. There is no charge to attend the talk, but donations to support UFAR are encouraged. An “African Soiree” fundraiser, with tickets at $100, $35 for children, will follow the speech at 6:30 p.m. in the Church’s Fellowship Hall. Visit www.riverblindness.org for tickets and further information.