Jiggers Campaign

The female sand flea (Tunga Penetrans), which is also known as a jigger in Uganda, is causing untold suffering to children. Jiggers embed themselves predominately in the skin of children’s feet and ankles, where they feed on the flesh and blood of their host.

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Heavy infestations can lead to severe inflammation, ulceration and fibrosis. Lymphangitis, gangrene, sepsis, the loss of toenails, autoamputation of the digits and even death are potential outcomes. The female lays around 100 eggs and in 30 days they are ready to start the process again.

Jiggers thrive where there are few made roads, dirt floors and animals mixing freely with people.  Children are especially vulnerable because very few in our programmes have shoes, so their feet are in constant contact with soil and dusty floors.

Please spare a thought for children in Africa whose education is disrupted when they can’t walk to school or whose lives are being crippled by this tiny flea. Seeing the jiggers work at first hand is not a pretty sight! You can’t fail to want to do something about it if you witness it. Feed The Children (UK)’s project involves health talks, sanitation campaigns and fumigation in 14 schools and 2,148 homes, helping over 13,000 people affected by this flea.

The total cost for the campaign over two years is £154,000, a small price when you consider the long term alternative of continuing to support children crippled by this preventable infection, The campaign needs to raise enough money in order to raise the profile of this little-known problem, generate public interest, and provide the resources for tackling the problem.

The project is based in the community and schools and has clear objectives:

• To raise awareness of the problem and its scale worldwide.

• To raise funds to implement a solution for people affected by jiggers.

• To educate those affected by jiggers so they can take control of the problem and eradicate its affects.

• The solutions are simple:

  • Eradicate the misery of jigger infection by controlling the pest in homes and schools. This can be achieved through:

  • Concrete floors in schools,

  • Fumigating houses and supplying disinfectant for soaking feet (a better solution than the home-spun remedy of digging them out with a pin).

  • Educating the community on how to continue to control the jigger