An e-Rotary Club with some local members has joined forces with a combined Australian Rotary Club project to help prevent avoidable blindness through the spread of an infection.

The aim is to help eliminate the infectious disease known as trachoma by supporting First Nations children across remote Australia living in inadequate conditions with essential toiletry kits.

A group of St Josephs’ Primary School children helped local Rotarian Kathryn Chivers pack kits for children and families at the school towards the end of last year.

“It was a good opportunity for students to also learn about a preventable disease such as Trachoma and the importance of hygiene,” Kathryn said.

Kathryn - a member of the Rotary e-Club of Change Makers in District 9790 - said clubs and individuals are invited to support the project.

“The EndTrachoma project was selected by the club as it fits well with several Rotary areas on the focus of disease prevention and treatment, water, sanitation, and hygiene, maternal and child health and basic education," she said.

Kathryn said the initial project started in 2017 with the e-Rotary Club getting on board last year.

“Replenishing toiletry consumable’s will be ongoing,” she said.

The Rotarian said the Northern Territory Education Department’s ‘Families as First Teachers’ program was selected by the EndTrachoma project manager as an area for the e-Rotary Club to support for needed toiletry kits.

Kathryn also said the e-Club will make toiletry kits for children and their families who attend “Families as First Teachers’ (FaFT).

“We will establish an ongoing relationship between the FaFT Centre and the Rotary e-Club of Change Makers and other communities too," she said.

“We will be helping to educate children from an early age to prevent Trachoma and other preventable diseases at the FaFT Centre.”