Vision Quest

By Suzanne Perry

Photograph by Jennifer Kirby for Helen Keller International

George Kessler, a New York wine merchant, was aboard the British ocean liner Lusitania when it was sunk by a German U-boat in 1915. He vowed that if he survived, he would devote his time and money to helping victims of the war — a pledge he fulfilled by founding a charity to help soldiers blinded in battle.

Today, his group, Helen Keller International, is celebrating its 90th anniversary, and now operates programs in 24 countries in Africa, Asia, and the Americas.

While Mr. Kessler’s original mission was to provide reading materials in Braille and other services to blind people, today’s organization has broader goals: to prevent blindness and improve nutrition among the world’s neediest people.

The organization puts much of its effort into fighting diseases that cause blindness and helping people in developing countries supplement their diets with vitamin A, which is essential for good sight.

To get its message out about the need for good nutrition and hygiene, the charity had to overcome the fact that many residents of poor regions cannot read or write.

The group last year began a project in Mali to equip 20 rural radio stations to broadcast public-health programs — interviews, public-service announcements, stories, and songs — and to serve as training centers for radio producers. With $1-million from the U.S. Agency for International Development, the charity is also organizing listening clubs for women and children to discuss what they have learned from the radio programs about health, nutrition, HIV/AIDS, gender equality, and education.

More than half the charity’s $38-million budget last year came from private donations, including corporate gifts of medicine and other goods, and 34 percent from the U.S. government. Governments of other countries contributed 11 percent.

Here, at a radio station in Ouelessebougou, Mali, that broadcasts Helen Keller programs, an employee gets ready to go on the air.