Riverblindness starts with an excruciatingly itchy rash, and when it leads to blindness, children must leave school to be full-time caregivers for family members. About 21 million of the 60 million people there are at risk of getting this socially disruptive disease. There is a drug for riverblindness, provided free by Merck & Co., but it is a challenge to get the drug to remote villages and ensure that every person takes the drug once a year for at least 10 years.

I’ll be there, supporting UFAR founder Daniel Shungu. James Floyd, a former Princeton mayor who will celebrate his 91^st birthday that evening, will be the guest of honor.

Photo by Robin Birkel: Susan Lidstone (right) shows Dana Hughes the dolls that she and volunteers from the Lebanon Quilting Guild fashioned as favors for the Fourth Annual UFAR African Soiree.on Saturday, March 9, 5 to 8 p.m., at Princeton Theological Seminary. Also shown, a brightly colored African Sunset quilt, made by Shirley Rudd, which will be auctioned at the Soiree.