Katherine Newspaper wrote:
"An interactive water trailer is being given to the Katherine West Health Board to help end the blindness causing disease trachoma.
The trailer will be handed over by the Rotary Club of Darwin and senior representatives of INPEX and Ventia tomorrow.
The trailer will be based in Katherine but deployed to remote Indigenous communities in the Top End to help end the blindness causing disease trachoma.
A free laundry was launched in Barunga earlier in the year which also had an aim of reducing the prevalence of trachoma.
The MKII Interactive Water Trailer uses play and interactive games to teach children about the importance of hygiene.
The innovative design of a gamification trailer engages children to play with lights, music and light water sprays so their faces can be gently washed with water, greatly reducing the recurrence of the infection that causes trachoma and blindness.
The infection causes the inner eyelids to become rough which can lead to pain in the eyes, breakdown of the outer surface or cornea of the eyes, and eventual blindness.
A collaboration between Rotary Clubs, Melbourne University, Monash University, INPEX and Ventia, they have built the MKII version which will be based at Katherine NT, serving indigenous communities and cattle stations.
Trachoma disappeared from mainstream Australia a century ago, however, blinding endemic trachoma still occurs in remote Aboriginal communities where there is overcrowding, poor hygiene and sanitation.
Australia is the world's only developed country with trachoma, an infectious eye disease that can be prevented with good hygiene practices.
Rotary's aim is to have a trachoma-free Australia by 2021, Rotary's 100th year in Australia."
